• Good stuff from Paul Buker on the Beaver beat regarding Pac-12 divisional alignment and OSU’s perspective. The Register-Guard has the story, too. I would assume Oregon shares OSU’s preference for the zipper alignment.
• But for 2011, who cares about zippers? Everyone should be asking to get in with USC seeing as how the Trojans won’t be eligible to win its division.
• It’s possible Mama is going to let Bobby Boucher give the Oregon “fools’ ball” team a pregame speech.
• Furthering an initiative to link at least one piece of bad news about Oregon basketball per day, it’s possible the Ducks could face penalties from all the offseason player movement. But we won’t know until the spring which doesn’t really make this news.
• UO strength and conditioning coach Jim Radcliffe gets a little time in the spotlight with a YouTube video talking about and showing his approach to fitness.
• Locations for the Pac-12 title game are being talked about. I’d vote for San Diego or Las Vegas for two reasons. (1) Both are tourist destinations that offer more than a football game. (2) Neither team playing in the game will be eligible for repeat visits in the Holiday or Vegas Bowl (lower tier bowls). Seattle would be an awful choice and you don’t want to dilute the Rose Bowl by hosting a championship game a month earlier. Matt Prehm has a compelling thought on making Vegas more viable.
• Turner Sports made an announcement that gives them digital rights to NCAA properties. Clearly, Turner is bullish on the NCAA. Hopefully, Turner, ESPN/ABC, Fox Sports, NBC/Comcast and others all do a good job of driving up the Pac-10′s price…providing Fox Sports loses.
• USA Today has a database with a detailed run down of income and expenses per school. Just choose a college and year.
• Finally, something less heavy… here’s a rundown of a fun little Twitter trend that got going yesterday under the #cfbnovels hashtag. My favorite that didn’t make the list: @BirmBuckeye -”Atlith Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, foreward by Lou Holtz.

Pac-10 teams will be playing a pretty even slate of opponents for the most part. Oregon and Arizona both play teams ranked about the same. Oregon State and Cal will play up against higher ranked teams with better records. Stanford and USC have lower ranked opponents with similar records.

The matchups feature opponents from the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Mountain West. Despite the fact 10 SEC teams will play in a bowl game, none are against the Pac-10 because the conferences don’t have any contracted matchups. The Big East is also absent from the bowl schedule.

* Note: All times are pacific.

But really, the argument for “Biggest Civil War Ever” really comes down to one of two years: 2000 or 2009?

You can make an argument for either year. I had been thinking 2009 without question. Now that I look back at it, it’s a lot closer than I thought but two things ultimately make this the bigger game: (1) The winner goes to the Rose Bowl and (2) Media attention is infinitely more intense now.

In arguing for the the 2000 game, you could say both teams were more nationally prominent. The records were much better and Oregon was aiming at becoming one of a select few teams to ever go undefeated in Pac-10 play.

Either way, you can’t go wrong.

	Tale of The Civil War Tape
Category	2000		2009
UO/OSU Ranking *	5 & 8		8 & 16
Winner Eligible For Rose Bowl ¥	Both		Both
Combined Record Prior to Game	18-2		17-5
Combined Win Percentage	90%		77.2%
Worst Case Scenario for Losing Team	Holiday Bowl		Las Vegas Bowl
TV Broadcast	ABC Regional ??		ESPN HD National
Venue	Original Reser		Remodeled Autzen
Coaches ±	Erickson/Bellotti		Riley/Kelly
Star Players †	Chad Johnson/Joey Harrington		Jacquizz Rodgers/Jeremiah Masoli
Roses Being Waved From Our Car in Corvallis En Route To Game	A Bushel		None
Soul Crushing Defeats	1		No Freaking Way

* Using AP Rankings.
¥ Oregon State would have gone to the Rose Bowl had Washington lost later that day so technically, the Beavers had a shot going into the game.
± None of the four coaches had/has the cache that Dennis Erickson carried with him off of his Miami Hurricane fame and NFL experience.
† I think the 2009 game has more star power, if only because the media is more intense now. Chad Johnson wasn’t even close to a household name yet and Joey Harrington was a year away from a Times Square billboard.

What’s more fun? Reading about LeGarrette Blount or Getting Hit By Him?

I have a medical condition known as Blount Fatigue. I don’t want to hear about it anymore. Give him a carry. Or don’t. Just stop talking about it! Terrell Owens called and said he wants his attention back.

Like Ron Burgundy said on his ESPN audition, “That’s just dumb”

Am I reading this right? An Oregon State player would rather play in the Holiday Bowl than root for Oregon this weekend to set up the Beavers’ shot at a Rose Bowl? And people agree with him? I always root for whatever is best for the Oregon Ducks. Period. If that means I have to dress up with buck teeth, slap a flat tail on my ass and gnaw on some trees for a weekend, so be it (do with the visual what you will).

Masoli! Look out! It’s Arizona!

Did you hear? Arizona is where Duck quarterbacks go to die (or suffer season-ending injuries). The last two desert trips have resulted in Kellen Clemens and Dennis Dixon playing their last down of college football. No, really, it happened in both 2005 and 2007. Honestly, how many of these friendly reminder articles do I need to give you? It’s mostly The Oregonian’s fault. Apparently, they want whatever resilient part of me that soldiered on two years ago to finally die.

I Smell Roses

I was just reading about this viral video that didn’t “viral” it’s way to my laptop before the University of Oregon freaked out and shut it down. But Google is still my friend and while I get the UO’s point, you can’t stop the internet. It’s kind of big. In case you’re like me and just crawled out from under your rock, here it is courtesy of Yahoo Australia (sorry Angie, you should have let me be a marketing intern).

In some ways, it’s too bad. The Holiday Bowl is a great destination (take it from someone who lives in San Diego, it does not suck in December). Had they been willing to change their date and come up with more cash, it could have been a great number two. Now, Pac-10 fans will be getting to know a whole new destination in San Antonio, assuming the deal goes through.

It should take care of a major problem the conference previously faced. With only one game on or after Jan. 1, the Pac-10′s best teams were often out of the picture just as all the other conference’s elite were taking the field. The Alamo Bowl would be slotted for Jan. 2 and put the number two Pac-10 team in a more prime time slot.

The other issue that it hopefully addresses is the lack of even matchups. The Pac-10 often faces bowl teams ranked lower in the opposing conference. For example, the Holiday Bowl usually matched the Pac-10 #2 vs. the Big 12 #3 or #4. With the reported $3 million payout, perhaps the Pac-10 can get an even matchup and create more marquee bowl matchups. The fact that bowls such as the Sun, Emerald, Poinsettia and Las Vegas would be pushed down one spot also helps with prestige assuming all bowls remain contracted. At this point, it’s all speculation until new agreements are worked out and the dominoes are likely to spark significant changes.

Ultimately, the addition of the Alamo Bowl will be a great start to getting the Pac-10 more elite exposure. Now, about that TV deal.

One problem…it ain’t gonna happen. Just because we’ve spent an entire season getting told that Oregon State is a vastly superior program, team and set of human beings doesn’t make it so. I present to you the following: Oregon State is 8-3, Oregon is 8-3. The Beavers are not better. And they’re not worse, either, but they are completely beatable.

I get that the Beavers are a lunchpail crew of winners on a road called destiny. I get that Mike Riley with his pinnacle of achievement being a Sun Bowl victory is vastly superior to Mike Bellotti. I even understand that because Oregon aggressively markets itself, it only cares about image, never about winning. But even so, Saturday is going to be a day of victory for the University of Oregon. It’s a wild thought, I know. After all, this is an Oregon State program clearly on another level from the University of Oregon. Just look at their overall records since Mike Riley II began his tenure. Why, they’re completely even!

You’ll just have to forgive me for thinking Oregon will win. Roses can wait another 44 years.

PreNicktion: Oregon 38, Oregon State 28