Ted Miller Really Loves the Pac-10 (But HATES Duck)

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

If you’ve been following this recent post-Washington columnist/now ESPN blogger, he finds some pretty good stuff around the Pac-10, which makes him a pretty good man for finding the various info that I need to know about the Pac-10.

That being said, he’s been going a little nutty with his Pac-10 love the past few days. Starting with this shining nugget about non-conference scheduling:

Moreover, these fans should muster their outrage for cowardly — and greedy — athletic directors who schedule boring, automatic victories but still charge a full ticket price for a terrible game.

Of course, the Pac-10 is the conference of bravery. It doesn’t embarrass itself by scheduling Appalachian State, Troy, North Texas and Tulane (LSU) or Eastern Washington, Nevada, SMU and Massachusetts (Texas Tech).

Alright Teddy, we get your point. We schedule the majority of our games in Division I. I guess this means we bring swords to a gunfight or schedule a Hindu wedding ceremony in a Texas smokehouse.

But I wrote about this earlier this year, and despite the extra win, the Pac-10 doesn’t come off THAT much better. Last year two Pac-10 teams played Idaho (one win in the WAC), bottom-dweller Syracuse of the Big East, and Cal got the pleasure of being taken to the wire with Colorado State. For every Oregon domination of the Big House and Troy burning down of Corn Nation, there was an Oregon State getting blasted by Cincinnati or UCLA imploding at home vs. the Irish. I think this is more of Miller griping at how UW got the thankless job of playing Boise State, Ohio State, and Hawaii (a combined 33-6 in 2007) whereas other Pac-10 teams got the luck of the draw with Northern Arizona, San Diego State and Idaho State.

Bottom line: The Pac-10 has an advantage over other conferences in terms of scheduling. But the advantage is slight, and in the end it doesn’t really do them jack. (To view the results of the big conference results OOC 2007, click here!)

As for most hated Pac-10 teams, there isn’t much reason in this delightfully homerish column. He starts off reasonably well enough.

1. USC

Okay. Fairly reasonable point. You just had to put those three letters down, didn’t even have to justify that answer to a nationally televised audience. Now just don’t say what I think you’re going to say next. Anyone with a conscience would have UCLA next…

2. Oregon

D’oh!

Okay, now, may I ask how the Ducks became the second most hated program in the Pac-10?

The Ducks are rich, rich, rich. With billionaire, hands-on booster Phil Knight opening the coffers, Oregon owns perhaps the best facilities of any program in the nation. When folks out West talk about an “Arms Race,” they point at Oregon. Moreover, Oregon is loud. Loud uniforms. Loud promotions. Loud stadium. That’s why Oregon State and Washington aren’t the only teams that stick pins into Ducks voodoo dolls.

Translation: Woof Woof Woof! Husky FAN! BOOOOOO DUCKS! QUACKERY! ME WANT MONEY! MONEY GOOOOD! WHY NO PHIL KNIGHT LIKE ME! WEAR ADIDAS!

Ah yes, I always hated Oregon for having loud fans. You know, doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing at a college football game. Don’t you know you have to treat every football game like the Brandenburg Symphony is playing?

Well, now it’s clear where UCLA should go.

Arizona State: This is a recent hate elevation. The Sun Devils used to be middle-of-the-pack for all teams other than Arizona. But now the program, long hailed a sleeping giant, appears to be waking up with Dennis Erickson at the helm. That breeds jealousy. And lots of folks are quick to insist that ASU is easier to get into academically than most Pac-10 schools.

Okay, I guess not. But I enjoy schools that are easier to get into academically. Because you end up with coeds like these.

UCLA come in 4th, which has to be an insult to condescending Bruins fans everywhere. Cal comes in 6th, despite having about ten times more success the past five years than Sun Devils. Oregon State is 7th, which will make those lovable Beavers fans get even more annoyed (Can you really get angry at a team that has a beaver for a mascot? I can’t muster it). Stanford is 10th, which must delight the Hoover Institution to no end.

Also the Oregon-Washington rivalry is somehow 3rd above the FREAKING CIVIL WAR, which doesn’t even make the top 5 rivalries list in the Pac-10. UW has two rivalries in the top 5. Does the acrimony run that deep in Huskyland for two different teams that it outweighs another state? And don’t forget that the Ducks have the ninth toughest schedule despite an interesting tilt with Boise State and a decent road matchup with Purdue (you don’t even have to guess who’s number 1).

Ahh, college football and objectivity. They go as well together as Genghis Khan and tofu farmers.



Topics: Blogs, College Football, Media, Oregon Ducks, Pac-10

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