Jay, here.

A quick little hit on the Cal blog “The Band Is Out On The Field” just caught my attention. It’s a week or so old, but it brings up an interesting comparison.

Is Pac-10 basketball now SEC football?

Are we seriously that coaching crazy?

Ernie Kent is probably the 9th best coach in the league (hell, there is a possibility he could be No. 10 by next week depending on who OSU game get.)

Ernie Kent has two Elite Eights (2002, 2007) in the last six years.

Yet, some Oregon fans are talking job security. Wow.

There is an arms race in this conference. Coaching men’s basktetball in the Pac-10 is now the deepest that it’s ever been. No question. Considering the competition, every fan in the Pac-10 wants to know where their coach stands.

Well, I want to play a little statistical game. We all like to fill out NCAA brackets, right? Right. So, I’ve decided to score the coaches in the Pac-10 on a very similar point system. Even though past performance is the best indicator of future performance, these points clearly weigh past achievements and longevity over current conditions. But it does give you an interesting, quantifiable measurement of the current coaches in the Pac-10.

Here’s the point system. And we’re only scoring for NCAA appearances. Sorry, NIT means squadoosh, here.

NCAA Appearance: 1 point
2nd Round Appearance: 2 points
Sweet 16 Appearance: 4 points
Elite 8 Appearance: 8 points
Final Four Appearance: 12
Runner-up: 24
NCAA Champion: 48

Based on that point system, here’s how they rank:

10. Stanford - No coach.
9. OSU - Craig Robinson, 0 points.
8. WSU - Tony Bennett, 6 points.
7. Washington - Lorenzo Romar, 10 points.
6. ASU - Herb Sendeck. 13 points.
5. USC - Tim Floyd, 15 points.
4. Oregon - Ernie Kent, 20 points.
3. Cal - Mike Montgomery, 40 points.
2. UCLA - Ben Howland, 58 points.
1. Arizona - Lute Olson, 172.

What does it all mean?

For starters, it means that Lute Olson has been around for John McCain-long and won a Championship (Senator McCain is in the Championship Game this year). It also means that 8 out of the 10 coaches in the Pac-10 have scored NCAA points in their careers. Does anyone think Tony Bennett is the #8 coach in the conference? No. Is Lute Olson the best coach in the Pac-10 right now? I don’t think so.

And considering his success, it’s tough putting Ernie Kent in the bottom of this pool.

Jay, here.

Well, Duck Sports News kind of had a “Larry, Daryl & Daryl” situation here for the last couple of weeks.

See, there was our friend Jerry and his publication, Ducks Illustrated. But Ducks Illustrated, the publication, is located on the internet at DuckUniverse.com, not DucksIllustrated.com.

Just recently, however, our friend Matt came along and started a blog at DucksIllustrated.com. And it was causing a little confusion for some visitors to Duck Sports News. But being the good sport that he is, Matt has decided move and rename his blog, Ducks Attack.

Now that is cleared up, I want to clear something else up, as well.  The series finale for “Newhart” was the best ever.  No doubt.  And that doesn’t make me old.  It just means that I watched television for old people when I was really young and impressionable.

Jay, here.

Just a couple of miscellaneous items regarding today’s Spring Practice scrimmage and the Ducks depth chart.

Our friend Herb over at SolarDuckNews.com posted a report from today’s scrimmage, along with some photos.

You can check it out here.

And over on one of the eDuck message boards, I came across a link to a pretty cool, interactive depth chart.

Go here to take a look at Chile Duck’s Duck Depth Chart Spring 2008.

UPDATE: Well, it looks like Wieden + Kennedy might have had something to do with this campaign. Why would W+K’s lips be sealed if they weren’t involved? Thanks to the Wieden + Kennedy Studio blog for the link (Oregon graduates…Duck fans…makes sense.). And thanks for the links to the spoofs, which can be found below.

Jay, here.

Considering the ties-that-bind relationship the University of Oregon has with Nike (and their relationship with the advertising agency, and Oregon grads, Wieden + Kennedy, although there is no proof of their involvement), I wanted to call attention to this phenomenal piece of viral marketing.

“Real or Fake? Kobe Bryant jumps over Aston Martin”

Is it real or fake? Are you kidding? It’s fake. Real good marketing for Nike’s Hyperdunks, but fake. He shows off his Nike gear and shoes before he pulls this PR stunt. Got to be fake. Also, while I think it’s a real jump, the stunt is a fake of the Criss Angel type. Probably an optical illusion. The car’s real. The jump is real. But Kobe’s jump probably happens just out of the path of the Astin Martin.

Nice job Kobe, Nike, and Astin Martin. Got me doing your job.

Here are the spoofs:

Get all your sports news on the Oregon Ducks at DuckSportsNews.com.
Innappropriate comment? Let us know.

Jay, here.

Over the past forty-eight hours, the University of Oregon’s Athletics Department has been blitzed by the media concerning the relationship between the University and Phil Knight, highlighting the tension between athletics and academics.

In The Register-Guard on Saturday, there were two stories concerning gifts made to the university by Mr. Knight. “UO agrees to donor’s strict guidelines for athletic center” addresses the strings attached to the construction, donation, and operation of the new Academic Learning Center for Student Athletes. And “Rules changed after prior UO project caught officials by surprise” details the new rules for major work on university property instituted after the 2006 Casanova Center remodeling project.

On Sunday morning, ESPN profiled the influence of Mr. Knight on the university on “Outside the Lines”.

The end of one of The Register-Guard’s articles sums up this conflict pretty well. Terry Ruprecht, campus academic facilities officer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said this:

“It rankles me to no end that somehow athletics manages to bring in these wealthy donors that build these palaces for the athletics folks,” Illinois’ Ruprecht said. “We’ve got huge portions of this institution going wanting, and yet the athletics people get all this money. It really is aggravating.”

Ruprecht’s comments have me asking two questions. Well, there is a third one. But I’ll save that one for later.

1. Is the University of Oregon better or worse off because of Phil and Penny Knight’s donations?

2. If Phil and Penny Knight could not make donations to the University of Oregon Athletics Department, would those donations go towards academic programs?

They’re simple questions.

You might want to complicate the answers. But there’s no need to. There are very simple, easy, and right answers. Don’t over-think these questions.

Let’s look at the first question. The correct answer is that the University of Oregon is better off because of the Knights’ gifts. If you don’t think it is (You’re kidding, right?), try to imagine the University of Oregon experience without those donations? Not pretty.

Now, onto the second question. And I love this question. I’ve known several people to pose this question to academic-types at the university and they’ve gotten it wrong every single time.

I’ve got two dollars I want to donate to the University of Oregon Athletics Department. But University of Oregon faculty members want to curb athletics excess. In their infinite wisdom, the university adopts a rule that donors can only donate one dollar to athletics and one dollar to academics. I donate my dollar to athletics, but I’ve still got an extra dollar that I intended to donate to the university and the Athletics Department. Since I can’t donate any more to athletics, am I going to donate that remaining dollar to an academic program on campus? The answer is…No. If I wanted to donate to an academic program, I would have donated to an academic program at the very beginning. Just because I don’t, or can’t, donate to athletics, does not mean that I will donate to academic programs.

So, this leads me to back to Mr. Ruprecht’s comments:

“It rankles me to no end that somehow athletics manages to bring in these wealthy donors that build these palaces for the athletics folks…”

In that “rankling”, it seems to me that faculty at the University of Oregon would prefer donors not donate to athletics if those donations are not at least equaled in their giving to academic programs. Basically, if they can’t get those donor dollars, they don’t want anyone getting them.

And that has me asking my third, and final, question.

3. Why is the percentage of athletic donations increasing in relation to colleges’ overall donations?

Oregon faculty, it seems to me that’s a you problem, not an athletics department problem. And instead of blitzing each other, you might want to remember that you play for the same team.

UPDATED: Added names under photos

Jr. QB Cade Cooper

So. QB Nathan Costa & Fr. QB Darron Thomas

Sr. Rover, Patrick Chung and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly

Sr. RB Jeremiah Johnson and graduated O-Lineman Geoff Schwartz

Jr. QB Cade Cooper

Sr. WR Terence Scott & RFr. DE John Laidet

Fr. QB Chris Harper

Here’s a few snaps from the first day of Spring Ball.

Dennis Dixon

Jerome Boyd

Not sure, but we think #93 is Frantz Dorsainvil. He was getting quite a bit of help from teammates and defensive coordinator Nick Alotti in this drill.

Freshman Chris Harper

(Left) Patrick Chung and Willie Glasper

Drew Davis and his new number (10)

Nathan Costa

Justin Roper

Mike Bellotti

Remene Alston, Jr.

Cade Cooper (#2), Chip Kelly and LeGarrette Blount (#9)

Chris Harper

Nathan Costa

Nathan Costa

Cody Kempt

Darron Thomas

Herb from SolarDuckNews.com contributed these photos from today’s first Spring Practice.  Thanks, Herb.