Week 1 of the college football season is finally here, and with it comes first action for all 18 teams in the expanded Big Ten Conference. The Oregon Ducks may be focused on Idaho, but the rest of the conference has its own position battles, off-the-field stories, and challenging non-conference matchups to contend with.
Twice a week throughout the season, The Oregonian/OregonLive will be checking in with the Ducks’ Big Ten compatriots and highlighting some of the stories we’re reading and seeing from across the conference.
Ohio State AD talks about revenue sharing and loss of athletes
Last Wednesday, Ohio State University athletic director Ross Bjork spoke before the university’s board of trustees athletic committee. He discussed a range of topics, from NIL — which Bjork said the No. 2 Buckeyes spent $20 million on for that football squad alone — to the impending revenue-sharing model due to antitrust lawsuits filed by athletes against the NCAA.
Bjork said that because of revenue sharing — which would allow schools to share up to 22% of revenue with athletes, with the bulk of that money expected to be distributed to high-revenue sports like football and men’s basketball — Ohio State expects to lose about 150 athletes, though the goal is to keep all 36 of its varsity sports. This new reality will most likely impact smaller sports that don’t generate nearly as much revenue as football and men’s basketball, potentially jeopardizing the existence of some teams.
Once the legal dust settles, individual conferences and the NCAA should also have more freedom to regulate the third-party NIL marketplace, Bjork said.
Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz suspended for violating recruiting rules
No. 25 Iowa has self-imposed a one-game suspension for head coach Kirk Ferentz and assistant coach Jon Budmayr as the NCAA investigates recruiting rule violations.
The suspension is said to be due to the recruitment of quarterback Cade McNamara in the 2022 transfer portal. Ferentz and Iowa admitted the Level II violation because they contacted the player and his family before the portal opened.
“I often tell our players to follow the rules, but in this case I did not,” Ferentz said in an Iowa press release. “In 26 years as head coach at Iowa – and more than four decades as a coach – this is my first potential violation of NCAA Tier II rules.”
USC hopes secondary overhaul will lead to improved defense
The No. 23 USC Trojans were among the worst defenses in the FBS last season, ranking 121st in team defense (34.4 points per game) and allowing nearly 433 yards of offense per game. They may have played in a loaded Pac-12, but improvements on that side of the ball will be crucial for Lincoln Riley’s team amid a challenging Big Ten and nonconference schedule.
That starts in the secondary, where names like Greedy Vance (not a vice presidential candidate), DeCarlos Nicholson, John Humphrey, Akili Arnold and Kamari Ramsey are coming to USC from the transfer portal. The Trojans open the season in Las Vegas against No. 13 LSU.
“A lot of people kept telling me about the defense,” Vance told the Los Angeles Times. “I just wanted to jump in and be part of the turnaround.”
Nebraska names freshman Dylan Raiola as starting quarterback
The Nebraska Cornhuskers will rely on a talented junior this season and last week named freshman Dylan Raiola their starting quarterback. Raiola was a five-star recruit and was rated as the No. 2 quarterback and No. 7 player in the country by 247Sports. The junior from Buford, Georgia, transferred to Nebraska from Georgia and is one of the highest-rated recruits in the program’s history.
Raiola’s father Dominic was an offensive lineman for Nebraska from 1997 to 2000 and graduated from Saint Louis School in Hawaii – Marcus Mariota’s alma mater.
“GameDay” experts predict Oregon will win the Big Ten and national titles
Several panelists on ESPN’s “College GameDay” picked the Ducks to win the national title during Saturday’s preseason predictions segment.
Desmond Howard — who was the only panel member to pick Oregon as the Big Ten winner while the others chose Ohio State — chose Oregon as his national champion. Kirk Herbstreit also picked the Ducks as the overall winner, but stuck with his conference-winning Buckeyes.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, now part of the Gameday crew, predicted that Georgia would beat Oregon in the national championship game, a game that would feature two head coaches from Saban’s coaching pedigree, Kirby Smart and Dan Lanning.
— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and the Big Ten Conference for The Oregonian and is co-host of the Ducks Confidential podcast. Reach him at [email protected] or @RyanTClarke.
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