My co-host in the mornings on 95.5 The Game, Chad Doing — the legendary CIP — asked this question the other day on the air and it’s a good one:

Which bet would you most likely make, Oregon State getting 12.5 points in Dallas Saturday against TCU, or the Ducks at home giving 35 to New Mexico?

See, for me, I kind of like taking both our teams. I think Oregon State is going to beat the number in its opener and will play well. But I also like the Ducks to pound that spread by a mile. I mean, they’re going to have a great chance to be up 35-0 by halftime.

So if you allowed me only one bet, it would have to be on the Ducks. But the Beavers wouldn’t scare me, either.

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… when I heard about a naked Oregon State lineman in a three-point stance I kind of thought of, well… never mind. Just a picture I couldn’t get out of my mind there for a minute.

I have to agree with colleague John Strong on 95.5 The Game — when it comes to arrests, Oregon State may not quite top the Ducks (although it’s close) in sheer numbers but the Beavers seem to be involved in funnier ones.

Mike Riley took swift action in this one and the obvious question is, if this wasn’t a third-string freshman, would the decision have been as easy?

Am I the only person who would say, “Of course not.” I mean, if this was Quizz Rogers I’d hope Riley would hesitate. Really. And I know there are many who would argue with me. But you saw the Ducks be very careful with Masoli and Blount and I understood that, to a degree. They were important players who had an impact on their team’s success — so any punishment of them affected the success of other players.

I love how people believe that all players ought to be treated the same, whether they’re stars or not. They all think that special treatment for stars is something that doesn’t happen in real life — only in sports.

Yeah, right.

If you work for a company, in these economic times, and your star salesman is making money for everyone — do you think he’s not going to be treated differently than the guy at the bottom of the list barely making his draw each month? He better not be.

It just doesn’t work that way. Maybe that’s not the way it should be, but it’s the way it is. Success buys you second chances in this world.

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I give Oregon State coach Mike Riley a lot of credit for having the nerve to stand up and not go all political correct on us with how he feels about the new alignment in the conference:

“I would split it right down the middle,” Riley said. “I want to have a presence and play games often in Southern California, both financially and recruiting-wise.”

I understand how important it is for Pac-10 coaches to retain their presence in southern California. A big part of recruiting in that area is telling the prospective players they will get their one game per season at home. At the same time, I wouldn’t blame the coaches in that part of the conference for fighting these guys on that same policy. I wouldn’t expect them to be OK with these guys from the Northwest walking in and stealing players out of their own backyard. And this “zipper” schedule is the first step toward old rivalry games like the Civil War being placed somewhere in the middle of the season — because nobody is going to like cross-division games coming the week ahead of the conference title game — (the chance of playing the same team in back-to-back weeks, they say).

To me, if you try to take something of a global view, it’s kind of a shame that it’s so impossible to compete using just players from up here. Our scholarships always have to go to players from out of state — rather than Oregon kids. It’s the only way the teams can be good enough to compete on a national level.

And competing on a national level is the only thing anyone these days will be satisfied with. College sports have become a monster — a beast that keeps getting bigger and hungrier. And I’m not sure where all that ends up.

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That’s essentially what The Oregonian’s Mike Tokito does here. And makes this statement:

Bennett, now 40, is young, charismatic and has great family recognition. The more WSU won, the more frequently his name was mentioned when a coaching job came open.

It induced a weird combination of angst, anger and resignation from Cougars fans, who knew their cash-strapped school and isolated location made keeping Bennett around for the long term a challenge.

So here’s Robinson, also young at 47, also charismatic, and also with great family recognition (if you haven’t heard, his sister’s husband is a big guy in the federal government). Robinson even eschews wearing a tie at games, something Bennett made his signature look at WSU (although he’s back to wearing ties at Virginia).

Sorry, Robinson is no Tony Bennett, and I don’t care who his brother in law is. (He’s also not “young” at 47.)

Look, this is still the same team that lost at home to Seattle U. by 51 points. The same team that lost at home to Sacramento State earlier this season.

Robinson is going to win some games in the Pac-10 this season, because that conference is downright miserable, but he’s got a ways to be before you worry about throwing a lot of money at him. Let him prove it a little longer, please.

And if he wants to take another job somewhere, I’m afraid that a new practice facility there or a few more bucks won’t keep him there, anyway.

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… And I think the Trojans are definitely after him… He ought to wait for a few seasons. I have the feeling the next guy to coach football down there will be doing so under some real hardships.

First off, there are likely going to be sanctions against the Trojans. The whole Reggie Bush saga is going to cost them some sort of NCAA action. And reportedly recruits are already jumping ship in anticipation of Pete Carroll going to the Seahawks — and a possible NCAA probation.

On top of that, following someone into a coaching job who has been as successful as Carroll is always difficult. He’s going to be a tough act to follow — even if he is leaving one step ahead of the NCAA enforcement division.

(By the way, I hate that about college sports. These guys in football and basketball get their program on probation, then pull up stakes and go somewhere else, leaving the mess behind. There ought to be contract clauses that heavily financially penalize coaches who do that — like about $5 million).

Anyway, Mike. You’ve got all you want in Corvallis. And when they start flashing that bankroll at you at USC, just remember how much further your money goes up here than it will in southern California. And if you really want to go, just hang out a few more years until the next guy gets fired.

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Unless you spent a lot of money going to Las Vegas, expecting a win, there’s not too much to feel bad about off that MAACO Bowl experience. Those games simply don’t matter. And the last time BYU smacked a team around like that in the Vegas Bowl it was the Ducks and Oregon came within a whisker of playing for a national title the following season.

Just don’t make excuses. Don’t blame the wind. Either BYU was just that much better than your team, your team couldn’t get up for the game properly or it wasn’t very well prepared. For whatever reason, it happened.

Move on. And as I keep telling you, unless you’re in a BCS bowl — or even the national championship game — it really doesn’t matter.

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How does he do it? He’s 5-0 in bowl games at OSU and tonight he faces a very tough opponent in Brigham Young. And frankly, I think the Beavers are in tough.

Losing back-to-back Civil Wars with the Rose Bowl on the line has to take a toll on a team, doesn’t it? And really, how is it possible to keep convincing your team that these non-BCS bowls actually matter?

Really, they don’t. You think they do at the time, you think of all sorts of logical reasons why they’re meaningful, but the truth is, in the overall scheme of things at Oregon State, this game doesn’t mean any more than any of these other mindless, money-grabbing bowls that kill time before the national championship game.

And I would fear that, by now, the Beaver players may have a lot of trouble finding motivation for a game in a gloomy old stadium on a chilly night in cold, hard Sin City.

I have to go with BYU in this one.

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If you haven’t read this story by Kerry Eggers in the Portland Tribune, it’s a must-read. Nike is talking to Oregon State about designing an entirely new look for the university’s football program, from the colors, to the uniforms, even to the mascot!

Now while I’m not in love with some of those wild uniform combinations the Ducks use, there is no question how effective Nike has been in changing the image of the University of Oregon and its athletic department.

At the very least, Oregon State needs to dump that ridiculous “OS” thing that it went to a while back. When your most-popular cheer is “Ohhhh-ESSSSSS-YOUUUUU” you probably don’t need to drop the “U” part, do you? And the “OS” thing never caught on at all.

For the Beavers, this is exciting news. Go for it. And hey, if the old guys like me don’t like it at all, just do what the Ducks do — say it’s what the kids like and it helps recruiting.

You can’t argue much with that.

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What a great game. As a guy once said around here, “Both teams played hard.”

By playing so well, the Beavers gave the Ducks even more credibility as a powerful team. Sean Canfield was terrific, but I felt the Beavers wore down on both sides of the ball as the game went on. Oregon seemed to be the better conditioned team and you must credit Chip Kelly’s practice regimen for that.

Jeremiah Masoli’s skill at the helm of the option is a beautiful thing to see and really, LaMichael James was the best running back on the field.

I have to say one other thing — it took a ton of guts to run LeGarrette Blount onto the field in the second half of that game. I know I wasn’t the only person whose first thought was, “Man, he hasn’t had game contact in months, it’s cold out and the chances of him fumbling …”

Well, all I can say is that it was a very gutsy move to use him.

Now, sit back and glory in your Pac-10 title, Ducks. And make your arrangements for Pasadena early. After all those years loyally showing the colors at those lousy secondary bowls Oregon has attended, you deserve this trip.

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I did three hours this morning on the MSP over 95.5 The Game. Now at work at a consulting job I’ve been doing during the day. Then to the Blazer game, followed by a live episode of “Talkin’ Ball.”

So, be patient with me. Not as many posts lately. I will blog when I can over the next few days but time is an issue sometimes. Sorry — but what the hell, it didn’t cost you anything to come here, did it?

Chew on this stuff:

– New Jersey Nets are 0-14 and coming in on the second of a back-to-back after losing at Denver last night. Man, the Blazers are going to pay later in the season for all these easy games to open the year.

– Who is going to get the Portland State football job? And does anyone care?

– How are the Beavers going to stop the Ducks’ spread option?

– Are the Ducks going to stop the Beavers’ fly sweep?

– Isn’t it great that we’re this geeked up about the Civil War more than a week away from the game?

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