Saturday afternoon (night for us) the 5th seeded Oregon Ducks host the 12th seeded Fun Belt champion James Madison Dukes for the right to face Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. None of the powers that be ever planned for 2 Group of 5 champions to make the field, but then again, no one thought the ACC would be so pathetic where the winner of the World’s Smallest Outdoor Cocktail Party would ever be left out. This match-up really does look like a September rent-a-win game rather than a game with national championship implications.
Series record: First meeting
Last meeting: N/A
Gambling degenerate facts: Oregon currently is a 21.5 favorite with a money line of -2000 and a point total of 49.5.
How should a refugee watch this game: Refugees should watch this game with an eye toward a potential national championship showdown with the Ducks. Are the Ducks good, or is their record a product of a schedule that included an overrated at the time the game was played Penn State?
I’ll be hate watching the game because after a trip to Disneyland a number of years ago, I figured out Oregon fans are the west coast version of the Handbags but without the nattys in their history.
Interesting statistic: +2.92 (Oregon’s net yards per play)
Once again, I don’t know if this is a product of the Oregon schedule, but a greater than a net 2 yards per play tells me they are good on both sides of the ball and they create and prevent explosive plays. I expect we’ll see their explosiveness on Saturday.
Early outlook: I really don’t see a path to an upset in this game without significant help by Oregon through turnovers and special teams miscues.
JMU is likely to be happy to get the playoff check for the Sun Belt and prepare for the return of SBB to his natural environs. Oregon is going to look to make a statement that they plan to use an advantageous path to the best of their ability.
Ducks win and win big, but I doubt their players will be eating chicken wings on the sideline in the 4th quarter.
Final Score: Oregon 48, James Madison 13
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
JMU is in the college football playoffs, yet if JMU was on UGA’s schedule instead of Charlotte, when the schedule came out, the critics would have been screaming about scheduling a cupcake late in the season. If ANY Group of 6 teams is going to be looked at as a cupcake any more than the bottom feeders in the Power 4, then why the hell are they eligible for the CFB playoffs?
Ask the lawyers that frequent here. The only reason the G5 gets a seat at the big boy table is that the Power 4 plus ND can’t separate themselves from March Madness money (although I believe the Power 4 could make similar money per school/conference if they left the NCAA but that’s another topic for another day). Therefore, they can’t set up a playoff that excludes the G5 without the threat of a large antitrust action.
My understanding is that the SEC and the Big 10 had to get a unanimous vote including ND to change the playoff during the contract. The only way to get that expansion was to guarantee a Group of 5 spot.
And that’s why these ideas of setting a ranking threshold for including a G5 team will be a non-starter. Those conferences will never agree because the committee that hands out the invites controls the rankings. So they will either feel obligated to over-rank a G5 team to include them and avoid a lawsuit or under-rank them because they won’t bring in the eyeballs.
I assume they could say all eligible conference champions must be in the top whatever in the final rankings. They couldn’t single out the non-power 4 for this. It would still be difficult to defend the rankings in court.
The solution is the CFP forcing conferences to include earlier in their tiebreaker scenarios the CFP rankings.
Honestly, what’s the legal difference between G5 and DII or FCS, in terms of exclusion from a CFP? The CFP
could easily just say, we’ve got a playoff for you, G5, and one for you, P4. Here’s how we share the pot of money.
Okie v bama is not the same as this game yet the “win it on the field” crowd cherish this Cinderella opportunity. I hope Oregon puts up 60 pts and ESPN ratings tank after the first quarter to show the powers that be they’ve got to grow up, grow a pair and fix this mess of their own making.
I like where your going on this and more than likely when Orygone puts a 60Burger up, they’ll be made the bad guys. Sadly, if the ratings tank, Disney will just squeeze carriers for more fees to make up the difference and then blame the fans for not watching the games they never asked for. Disney can’t fail, the consumer fails them…
Your last sentence is spot on in their thinking.
This situation taunts ND as being less deserving of a berth than……JMU!
Maybe JMU will give ND a break and schedule them in the next few years.
Seal clubbing!
JMU wins the Twix wars, though. JMU was (sarcastically) crowing about poaching an SEC head coach (Sunbelt Billy) while Oregon had to settle for an SEC assistant coach. 😀
Apologies, Refugees. I’ve been laughing at a lot of JMU tweets and am probably the problem.
JMU being considered a top college football contender for the national championship is a joke. Oregon and Ole Miss get a free scrimmage warm-up game.
And it’s not like the extra home game in Eugene and Oxford is going to help out the pockets of the fans. Everything will probably be more expensive and just nudge the price point up for next season’s cupcake games that a lot of people – especially with families – target as the affordable games to attend. Supply and demand is one thing, demand and demand more is another.
I doubt I even watch this shit show and last year I watched every playoff game. Oregon will have the 2nd string in by the start of the 3rd quarter.
I hope Oregon wins 84-0 to prove how ridiculous this is. But if JMU somehow wins I will be laughing my ass off and pretending I didn’t type the first sentence.
Mickey needs/wants a ciderella in their invitational (either now or expansion later), nothing clicks better than…whut say, App. st vs meesshigun…if the ducks bury the dukes, could GAS less, if the ducks struggle early, big deal, the dukes will accept their check and other parting gifts and head home, if the dukes win, big deal, they are not gonna’ be invited to a bigger conference, it’ll be game film for later in the next round…GO DAWGS!!
On one hand, I agree with those of you who want JMU and Tulane to get destroyed. On the other hand, I hate Oregon and would love it if JMU beat them. MAYBE it’ll just be a 21-20 Oregon victory, which would still be funny.
Blowout City #1.