The lack of respect for Oregon

It's always been out there but it is just ridiculous. Pac-10 is coming off a year where they won all their bowl games. The Big-10 went 1-6 last year. So lets examine this weeks big games in each conference.

#5 Ranked Penn State vs Unranked (29th in votes) Iowa

#6 Ranked CAL vs Unranked (30th in votes) Oregon

Looks like an exrtemely comparable match up.

Iowa beats Penn State 21-10 on the road.

Oregon beats CAL 42-3 at home.

So, give a kudos to Iowa for going on the road and playing a great game. Kudos to Oregon for a blowout. I may be a tad biased but I think a 39 point win should count a little more than a 10 point road win. Not by much, but a little.

Lets break down Iowa's and Oregon's other games.

IOWA is 4-0 WINS over #5 Penn State, Arizona, Iowa State and Northern Iowa.

OREGON is 3-1 WINS over #6 CAL, #19 Utah and Purdue, LOSS to #14 Boise State.

Iowa slid up the polls 16 spots while Oregon slid up 14. In the USA today poll Iowa is #17 while Oregon is #25. Wait, 25??? 2 wins over top 25 teams and we are #25?


Now lets take a look at the Top 4 teams. Currently Oregon has played more ranked teams than the top 4 teams combined.

#1 Florida is slated at this time to face 2 top 25 teams. They will undoubtedly face a top 25 in the SEC championship game bringing their total to 3. Florida's strength of schedule this year is somewhere in the 100's. Meaning it is literally one of the weakest in the country. Actually I think it is only slightly stronger than Boise State. FL International, Charleston Southern and Troy, OH MY!

Oregon has faced 3 top 25 teams in 4 weeks. Couple more to come.

#2 Texas has played Wyoming, UTEP, Texas Tech and Louisiana Monroe. They will be faing 3top 2 teams plus the Big 12 championship game.

#3 Alabama gets a kudos for opening with VA Tech, but they also have FL Inernaional, North Texas and Chatanooga on thier schedule.

#4 LSU will actually face 4 top 25 teams, if they make it to the SEC championship game it will be 5. I've watched some LSU games and I think they will not make it past all the ranked SEC teams without loosing 1 or 2. But if they do they will earn it!



If you take a look at VA Tech you will see they are now ranked #6 in the country.

They lost to Alabama and came back to have quality wins over Marshall, #18 Nebraska and #9 Miami. Thier year has been similar to the Ducks.

I've watched each of the Duck games this year. The team is playing very good ball rigt now, the O line was a HUGE question mark coming in this year and it showed against Boise State.


The moral of the story is that you should NOT give the fans what they want. Don't schedule tough games! The Ducks should have played Troy, Charleston Southern, Florida International, Chatanooga, North Texas or Louisiana Monroe. They'd be 4-0 and ranked 5th or 6th right now. Of course if Oregon played any of those teams they would have a "weak strength of schedule because they are not in the SEC."