When it comes voting on the Top 25, wins and losses aren’t the only things that matter.

In 2005, after Kellen Clemens suffered a broken leg in the eigth game against Arizona (considered one of Arizona’s most memorable moments by an Arizona sports columnist), Dennis Dixon and Brady Leaf lead the Ducks to a 10-1 record, with only a loss to No. 1/2 USC. For the second time in four years, the Ducks got jobbed in the BCS, and they were sent packing for San Diego and the Holiday Bowl (where they technically did not lose because of Oklahoma’s NCAA violations).

If memory serves me correctly, however, one of the factors that was cited as a reason why Oregon was left out of the BCS picture was the injury to Kellen Clemens. Even though Oregon gutted out every one of those wins after Kellen’s injury, they were not the same team. And voters punished them for it, even though the team continued to win.

After witnessing that thing called a game yesterday, Inside UCLA’s Brian Dohn, a Harris Poll voter, left Oregon out of his Top 25 for this week. And I’m kind of surprised other voters have not done the same.

Regardless of win-loss record, are the Ducks, as they are constituted now, really a Top 25 team?

Here are a couple of other questions I heard fans asking themselves last night at the Oregon-San Francisco basketball game:

- Will the Ducks score another offensive touchdown in the next eight quarters?

- What Pac-10 team could the Ducks offensively score on now?

DSN fans, these questions are not an indictment of the coaches, players, system, or program. (From everything I’ve heard, these are a great, great bunch of kids.) These are just honest questions about the Ducks based on their current healthy talent and accumulated experience.

Are they a Top 25 team? Really?

JJ

UPDATE: Rob Moseley and I seem to have been thinking the same thing at about the same time.

Tags: Ducks, Football, University of Oregon