What I noticed more this week than anything is the continued demise of former Pac-12 members Washington State and Oregon State. Whether the relegation is deserved or not, in many ways it is difficult to watch from the outside as those people close to the program start to suffer from the reality that has started to hit them head on. Sure, there are many ways to look at whether there is sympathy or not and it is not my job to say we should hold sympathy for a once bitter rival.
Where my own sympathies lay is not in their demise itself, but in just how close Oregon really could have been to suffering the same fate. After all, the Ducks might be a waffle iron away from irrelevance on their own. Would the Ducks have had the same marketing arm at their side without the facilities and uniforms at their disposal? What if no one had gone up to Mike Bellotti after the thrashing by Colorado in the 1996 Cotton Bowl and asked him what he needed to get to the next level?
Where my own sympathies lay is not in their demise itself, but in just how close Oregon really could have been to suffering the same fate. After all, the Ducks might be a waffle iron away from irrelevance on their own. Would the Ducks have had the same marketing arm at their side without the facilities and uniforms at their disposal? What if no one had gone up to Mike Bellotti after the thrashing by Colorado in the 1996 Cotton Bowl and asked him what he needed to get to the next level?
DuckSportsAuthority - Flock Talk: The Way of the Buffalo
Today in Flock Talk, Oregon set to host several top prospects, plus thoughts on the loss of hope for some teams.
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