Post-draft thoughts

Welcome back

It's been a long while since I dropped some football knowledge on the people. I assume that, like me, everyone has been in a depressed stupor since the end of the football year in February. Fear not, citizens! For I have just the antidote: extremely premature draft reactions and college talking points. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of speculation!

NFL Draft thoughts

The circus that is the pro draft achieved this year what was previously deemed impossible: make the entire event even more ridiculous. You'd think that two days of hyper-intense drafting, trading and rumor-mongering couldn't be topped for sheer insanity. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. For some reason this year the NFL decided to move only the first round to Thursday afternoon, royally screwing over its entire West Coast constituency in the process. But there was good news - after rounds two and three on Friday, viewers got to see rounds four through seven in their entirety on the weekend! This was one of the most aggravating decisions out of the league in recent memory.

However, I'm invested in the draft more to see how teams weigh talent, potential and character in their draft decisions. For years, the Raiders valued raw talent (read: speed) more than anything else, and they paid the price.

During the 2010 draft, though, something strange happened: the Raiders made great picks. Six of the team's nine draftees were defenders, and two of the three offensive players were linemen. But it wasn't just the spirit of the picks that made the Raiders stand out, it was the individuals they got: nasty interior defenders in LB Rolando McClain and DT Lamarr Houston and a trio of defensive backs that will shore up one of the few weak points of an outstanding defense. The Raiders took a lot of quality college guys, not "potential" players.

I don't want to review the draft for every team, but here are a couple other teams that stood out because of the great college talent they acquired:

Detroit - can you believe it? The woeful Lions had a great draft, starting with the no-brainer selection of DT Ndamukong Suh, the best player in college last season. Then they picked up the supremely talented RB Jahvid Best and a solid CB in Amari Spievey. Those selections alone make the Lions winners... at least until Spetember.

San Fransisco - no doubt about it, the Niners are on their way up. After a disappointing 2009 season in which they should have made the playoffs, San Fran stocked up on can't-miss guys who should help them get over the hump. Highlights include a pair of powerful linemen in OT Anthony Davis and OG Michael Iupati, a very productive college LB in Navorro Bowman and bruising RB Anthony Dixon. Oh yeah, they also snatched up S Taylor Mays, a frighteningly athletic player who could excel under Mike Singletary's guidance. I think the Niners had the best draft this year.

But enough of the NFL. My realm of expertise is the college game, so it is there we shall go.

Spring Report

To say that it's been a weird few months would be a bit of an understatement. From academic and athletic scandals to the bizarre and insulting talk of "superconferences," the road to signing day has never been more twisted. I can't wait until summer begins and we can start to concentrate on the game for real.

First, there's the issue of "superconferences." New Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott has said the league is open to expansion. That's the first problem. The Pac-10 is structured perfectly right now, better than any other conference. It has geographical dominance over its neighbors (the WAC and Mountain West), features five sets of natural rivals separated (mostly) by state lines and draws heavily from the deep talent pool in California. Each team plays every other team, eliminating the need for a sham "conference title" game. There is such little upside to adding two teams (to form a pair of six-team divisions) that I can't fathom how Scott could support this. Every new member option has serious drawbacks. Boise State? Not strong enough academically. BYU? The religion aspect sours the deal. Fresno State? Academics, mediocre recent history. Colorado? Far away, has no in-conference rival. There's always Utah, it's true. But who would you pair them with?

Then there's the Big 10, which has expressed interest in a twelfth team - in particular, Notre Dame - to even out its current awkward eleven-team setup. This makes the most sense of any conference expansion, but for the simple problem that Notre Dame already has a conference. The Fighting Irish play all their other sports in the Big East, so how do you remedy this? Make them join the Big East for football, too? Then that league would have nine teams. Football isn't the only consideration for Notre Dame, even though it's obviously the biggest money-maker. The school would fit in the Big 10 football-wise but no where else.

The final problem is the specter of even larger conferences in the near future. Some commentators have said all the BCS schools should join together in a small number (I've heard four) of what could only be termed "super-superconferences." Quite frankly, if you support this idea you support the death of college football as we know it. In this scenario, the large conferences could permanently keep out all the smaller schools from any important bowls or championship considerations. The rich would only get richer, and eventually the remaining 50 or 60 teams at the FBS level would be forced to move down to lower-division football. It's a horrible future that I sincerely hope is never realized.

That's enough doom and gloom for one post, though. Spring games have been popping up all over the country and that familiar hopeful magic is in the air once again. It's that feeling every team gets around this time - that this year could be "our year" - and it spreads infectiously to their respective universities and fanbases. From what little I've seen of the televised games, it appears that everyone is still in the "working out the kinks stage," though there's no doubt Alabama will be the unquestioned number one team when the first polls are released.

I'm curious to see what Michigan does this year. The Wolverines made strides last season but fell apart. If they don't win seven or eight games this time around I can't see how Rich Rodriguez keeps his job. Les Miles at LSU is another question mark - he lucked into a title in 2007 using Nick Saban's players and has yet to prove that he's any kind of a quality coach. With a bad year he could be gone.

Then there's a guy on the other side of the equation in UNC's Butch Davis. He's built North Carolina into a formidable force and the Tarheels have nine returning defensive starters. They could break through to the BCS this year.

There's also always the question of which mid-major will break into the BCS. Last year we had the unprecedented two in Boise State and TCU - could the Broncos do it yet again? The potential in certainly there; the usual Charmin-soft schedule, combined with the fact that people now recognize that BSU is really good should translate into lots of poll votes. If only the Broncos could convince those pesky BCS computers! You know what would solve that problem... a playoff. But that would be crazy. Right, NCAA?

The Oregon "situation"

If it were any other school, I wouldn't bother. But as a lifelong fan and current student of the University of Oregon, it would be remiss of me to let the events of the last few months go unaddressed.

Oregon, as everyone ought to know by now, saw some of its darkest and most embarrassing days as a football program following the end of the 2009 season. Players were cited for drunk driving, fighting, harassment and theft. Speculation whirled among members of the press that Oregon players thought they were above the law. When WR Jamere Holland was dismissed after an expletive-laden rant against head coach Chip Kelly's suspension of LB Kiki Alonso, a local columnist opined that Kelly had lost control of the team.

The situation in Eugene was very, very ugly. Kelly had to take a stand on personal conduct to save his team's image. Without going into detail on each player and punishment, I can say that generally his decisions were sound. But that's not main issue any longer.

During and after the period in which the handful of players were cited for their various transgressions, a point of view emerged. It began, most likely, on the internet, where Oregon fans could discuss and compare their team with fans from across the country. This point of view stated that Duck fans should "keep things in perspective" and remember that most programs go through rough patches. Citing Florida's recent arrest record, Miami's infamous lawless years and rival Oregon State's similar situation a few years ago, the position tried to explain that Oregon really wasn't so bad; that things would improve in time. "The Oregonian" even ran an article comparing Oregon to the other schools.

This misses the point entirely.

The circumstances surrounding the other schools' troubled periods are irrelevant. I am not an Oregon fan because I enjoy comparing my team to others; I am an Oregon fan because I care first and only about supporting my team. The fact that Florida has had a much worse track record than Oregon means nothing. Bringing it up only serves to illustrate what Oregon does not want to become. Like all fans, I want to believe my team is special. That my team is superior. Comparing yourself to the worst examples possible achieves nothing. I hold Oregon to a higher standard, which is what makes this period so frustrating to accept. As I have said, I believe Kelly has the team on the right track. But the recent activity out of the problem has been unacceptable. Period. There's no way around that.