Oregon's move to the Big Ten doesn't appear on ice: Mailbag

On Oregon’s hockey future, where it could go wrong for the football team, Northwest baseball allegiances and the Honey Badger’s return to the grid.

This mailbag is long overdue.

There’s been a bit happening.

(Gestures wildly to surroundings.)

Let’s dive right in with the question on everyone’s mind:

Does this mean Wisco won’t be in last place again in Big Ten hockey next year? — Vaporizer

Sorry, Wick. Unfortunately the Badgers might have to get comfortable in the basement. While Oregon has competed successfully at the collegiate club hockey levels, a move up to Division I hockey to follow Oregon’s transition to the Big Ten doesn’t appear likely.

“Hockey is not under consideration at this time,” said Oregon assistant AD Jimmy Stanton in a text. 

One can dream, right? 

The Big Ten fields seven men’s hockey teams. Wisconsin won the national championship over Penn State on the women’s side in March. Hockey is very much a part of the Big Ten footprint.

Not so much here on the West Coast. 

To visualize:

And you thought the travel schedule would be bad for the softball teams in the Big Ten? At least they can still knock out nonconference games on the West Coast. Any Oregon hockey program would have to get very familiar with trips to Denver and Tempe. And it would probably need Washington to make a similar jump.

Ducks and Huskies at a renovated Mac Court? Giddy up.

Interestingly enough, the Ducks and Huskies club teams didn’t play in 2022-23 for the first time in years. While Washington went 19-0 in the regular season and knocked off Utah 5-2 in the Division II ACHA Pac-8 Conference title game, the Ducks mounted an up-and-down campaign in their first year since moving up to the Division I club level. The Ducks finished the year 7-18, with their 62 goals in 25 games ranking 62nd out of 70 DI club programs.

Good news, however: Despite their different conferences, the Ducks have the Huskies back on the schedule in 2023-24 for noncon action in January.

Many thought the Noah Sewell/Justin Flowe, DJ Johnson/Brandon Dorlus combo would help put Oregon near the top of the league defensively last year. Especially w/Lanning. Without diving into why that never panned out, what are we overlooking/have the most underserved confidence in this year? — Mikey G.

I was on Pac-12 radio this morning and was asked a question about who I thought would end up being the star of this season for the Ducks. 

I didn’t hesitate when I said Bo Nix. In fact, I may have had a little too much coffee in my system when I predicted that if he remains healthy he’s going to win the Heisman. Why? He’s got an insane amount of talent around him, from speedsters at wide receiver, a tight end he has chemistry with and a trio of running backs led by Bucky Irving to take some of the load off. 

Mix that in with Nix’s added leg strength and boom, Heisman. He wasn’t far from the conversation last year before he got hurt. So why wouldn’t that be the case in 2023 with more talent around him? 

The Ducks’ offense wasn’t just explosive last year, it was incredibly efficient. And I think we might be underselling how much of an impact replacing four good players from one of the best offensive lines in the country will have. 

That’s not to say I think Oregon’s line is going to fail this year. Jackson Powers-Johnson (400 snaps), Marcus Harper (711), Josh Conerly Jr. (118) and Steven Jones (259) all got a handful/more-than-a-handful of snaps last season, and Oregon welcomed in Ajani Cornelius and Junior Angilau from the portal. There’s talent here. There’s experience.

But if it even takes them a few weeks to come together and find a flow, they’re already starting in the dust of last year’s unit.

What are your favorite memories of the Pac-12 as beat reporter and fan, as we enter what is now seemingly, its last year of existence as we know it? — Cyrus Smith

Honestly, the camaraderie of the whole thing. We’ll expound more on this in a podcast I’m publishing Friday with Ken Goe and Andrew Greif, but really it’s just the people that first come to mind. 

Writers I consider good friends in this business — Kyle Goon, Christian Caple, Jacob Thorpe, Kyle Bonagura, Chantel Jennings — I’ve met through various media days, basketball tournaments, press scrums and beat writers roundtables. 

Sportswriters are cliquey as hell, and it was never a surprise to me that it ended up being the Pac-12 guys eating together in the corner whenever we have staff-wide meetings at The Athletic. 

A few other things I’ll miss/remember: 

• The Pac-12 had many, many faults. The men’s basketball tournament was not one of them. Love that thing. It’s one of the few events I’ve covered that I’ve wanted to return to with my own money as a fan. 
  

• Tweeting out my final story from a 7:30 p.m. kick just as the East Coast writers are waking up and forming their “ICYMI” tweets about the night before. 
  

• The first game I covered in Pullman was in 2014 for The Oregonian. We stayed in Spokane and drove out to the Palouse on game day. If you haven’t made that drive before, it feels like you’re on a different planet. It’s just nothing…nothing….nothing….nothing…nothing….Division I college town….nothing….nothing.

  But among that expanse of nothing as you drive through the plains of Eastern Washington are random people populating the drive in the middle of fields in the middle of nowhere waving Washington State flags. It’s Where’s Waldo? amongst the cornfields. It’s weird. It’s unique. It was college football. 

  

• The Arizona/Arizona State basketball road trip in the middle of January for sportswriters in Oregon is why news organizations have been able to get away with underpaying sportswriters in this state for decades. 

  

Most publications have Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix all in their top five returning quarterbacks nationally. But where do those three rank to you in the conference? Personally, even though Williams is the reigning Heisman Trophy Winner; I see Penix as capable of leading UW to a CFP berth on his way to the Heisman Ceremony stage. — Bryan.

Really with Williams, Penix, Nix and Utah’s Cam Rising, there are four guys you could make a legitimate argument for the top spot. 

Williams? Dude won the Heisman. 

Penix? Threw for 4,600 yards. 

Rising? Passed for 310 yards and three touchdowns to thump WIlliams and USC in the Pac-12 title game. 

And Nix? See, this is where I want to start typing in a smaller font because I don’t want to be accused of being a homer. But…his passing numbers were right there with those guys up until he got injured last year. And his 14 rushing touchdowns topped Williams by four, Rising by eight and Penix by 10.

Yes, Nix has a new coordinator and that fresh offensive line. But he’s got more weapons than he had last season — and last season was the most firepower he’s had in his career. 

So, the public list: 

1. Williams 

2. Nix

3. Penix 

4. Rising 

The I-5 Corridor wink-wink list: 

1. Nix

2. Penix

3. Williams (Heisman slump)

4. Rising

Since it’s still the offseason, I’ll ask an off-topic one. What did you think of the Blink-182 show? I was also there and had a blast. They were my No.1 bucket list band to see that I hadn’t seen yet. Is there a bucket list artist/band you haven’t seen yet? — Tyler4825

Man, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time. A few friends and I caught the train from Portland that morning and got a chamber of commerce afternoon in Seattle — tip of the hat to former Oregon long snapper Jeff Palmer for recommending the Queen Anne Beer Hall as a final stop before entry. 

I saw Blink back at Ridgefield in 2016, but this was the first time catching them with Tom DeLonge. They sounded great, that Climate Pledge Arena is awesome and it’s rare to feel that young and old — we talked way too much about how convenient our seat locations were to the bathroom — on the same night. 

I’ve been lucky to see a handful of my favorite bands like Foo Fighters, Jason Isbell, Hall & Oates, but I’d still really like to catch the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Killers. 

Let’s say theoretically Portland gets a MLB team. Where would your allegiance fall? The local, plucky expansion team or the team that constantly plays with the hearts of fans by barely making the playoffs once every 20 years? I started crying after typing that. — Billy Gates

Don’t do this to me, Billy. For the first time this summer the Mariners vibes are actually good. They’re over .500, the wildcard is within reach and the franchise even pulled off a lovely looking All-Star break last month. Shohei even said nice things!

And you drop this on me? 

I’d like to say the loyalty remains with the Mariners. Despite how easy it would be to root for a team in Portland, childhood memories weigh pretty heavy on the scale. 

However: Gosh darn it, becoming an adult sure makes you angrier about different things. I think the Mariners are cheap. I think they take advantage of a fanbase that supports its team despite scant success. The Mariners are very good at a lot of things outside of baseball — their promotional and media teams are some of the best in baseball — that give the appearance of an organization that invests in itself. The M’s just don’t do it in the area that actually matters. 

I’ve watched less baseball this summer than any other in my life. And I think Julio Rodriguez is a superstar. (Editor’s note: Author reserves the right to delete this story if the Mariners land Ohtani this offseason.) 

If Portland gets a team, they kick butt and have ownership that respects its fanbase, who knows? Hopefully they’re in the National League. 

Not on the I-5, but how are we feeling about Danny Ric being back on the grid with AlphaTauri? Sure the car is awful, but it’ll be nice just to see his face again — Alec Everson. 

Sorry if this gets a little sloppy, Alec. I’ve been doing Shoeys out in the backyard ever since hearing the news.

How could you not be stoked about Daniel Ricciardo being back on the grid? This has been a boring Formula One season thanks to Max Verstappen’s dominance with Red Bull, and the Honey Badger’s return isn’t just putting a fun face back on the grid. 

Red Bull No. 2 driver Sergio Perez has been struggling with the best car on the grid for more than the last month, and Ricciardo’s placement in the energy drink company’s junior car at AlphaTauri has the feeling of an extended tryout for the Australian. If he outpaces teammate Yuki Tsunoda and Perez continues to struggle over the final 10 races of the season? 

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Daniel and Max together again as a pairing in 2024. 

They certainly jive off the track:

Or…Ricciardo struggles, and these are his final laps as a Formula One driver before he ultimately becomes a podcast host in the States.

Could 4 Dari Marts beat up one full-sized Wal-Mart? — @Jarmoney

With the richness of vitamins and minerals sourced from local milk coursing through their “Buy Local” veins, I have the Dari Mart quartette knocking off Wally’s World in the fifth round by knockout. 

Wal-Mart couldn’t even handle NoPo. 

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor