Good Luck Ducks: B1G Championship Edition

 

The Nittany Lions and the Fighting Ducks clash for title of Big Ten supremacy. 

 

Well.

Well, well, well. The Oregon football team is competing in the conference championship game tonight, after running through the conference schedule unscathed in their first season as a member of the Big Ten. It probably pisses a lot of people off.  I honestly just think it's funny because Oregon would never have been in this position if it wasn't for some extremely crappy Los Angeles-based schools that thought they were going to flex by leaving the Pac-12 a few summers ago. The Ducks got dragged into this mess well after other schools made their move and have done very well for themselves.

That's not really the focus tonight, of course. Oregon faces a highly rated Penn State team for the first time this year, since the bloated size of their new conference can't accommodate a scheduled game for everyone. It's another biggest game of an increasingly huge season, although Ducks worrywarts like me (occasionally) can rest easy in the knowledge that a loss tonight, no matter how deflating, will not knock them out of the playoffs. A Penn State win would mean a new #1 seed in the playoffs, possibly themselves, and Oregon could potentially lose a first round bye. But the Ducks are still in the playoffs no matter the outcome.

All of the focus will be winning the game and the conference title that comes with it, of course. While Oregon exited the Pac-12 as the all-time leader in conference championship wins, they did not win it once under Dan Lanning. Lanning finally beat Washington last week after four tries, and I don't expect he will stop smashing helmets to motivate a big victory tonight.

I'd like to get over the ugliness associated with the Penn State program that still lingers in my brain whenever I hear about them, but it's hard to. I'll still try to focus my negative energy on the 1995 Rose Bowl loss that I watched on TV with some friends and family of the Ducks program back when I was a teen. That team seemed on average about 50 lbs larger than Gang Green and doubtlessly turned out some pro players, but things have changed a lot in 30 years.

Notes and such:

• Somehow I can't get away from uniform talk here. Oregon is going to wear some special black ones and Penn State is going to wear some special white ones. I wish both schools would just go traditional, but no one consults me on these things.
• Do they have any history at all? Penn State has the 3-1 edge, with their last meeting coming in that fateful Rose Bowl. Eventually these two schools will meet during the regular season, but in an 18-team conference that's spread across the entire country, there are going to be scheduling quirks.
• Ducks ranking this week: 1
• Dillon Gabriel Heisman Watch: Since there's no Lifetime Achievement Award, I think everyone will be content if Gabriel is one of the finalists. Also, you know, it's maybe a bit more important if they win that whole national championship thing that everyone wants. The increased attention on the playoffs kind of overshadows this whole thing.
• Game time is 5:00 PM PST on CBS in Indianapolis. Go Ducks!