The University of Oregon Ducks make one last change
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Sep 15, '06
The Ducks win and are successful.
Part of the success is goog marketing. Marketing to potential recruits that are 18 years old. Not to you and I. Based on the tremendous success the program has experienced, it looks like the entire recruiting strategy (uniforms included) is working.
Those uniforms do not need to appeal to the general public. What sells tickets and ad revenue is a successful program, which the Ducks have.
Tomorrows score: Ducks 42, OK 21.
Results matter. Go Ducks!!!!
Sep 15, '06
Love the comics, keep em coming! What a sad commentary on current sports.
Sep 15, '06
Phil Knight is such a terrible person for donating millions of dollars for sports facilities, the library, the law school, scholarships, endowments, etc.
1:13 p.m.
Sep 15, '06
Other than the fact that I agree that uniforms do need to appeal to the general public (what are we going to have next for uniforms, gansta stylin'?) I do have to say that Dan is largely correct in this one instance. This isn't a bunch of players being forced to wear random corporate logos, it's Nike. And like it as not, wearing branded sportswear is considered fashionable. I doubt many players are grumbling.
That said, I do wish people would support Universities for more than their sports programs. You know, like, say, being superior in providing higher education? Boosting the economy? Stuff like that?
Sep 15, '06
Oddly enough, I've always held the view that college was about getting an education. I guess I'm just silly that way.
Sep 15, '06
At least they have people talking about the uniforms and the team. My dad had season tickets when I was growing up in Eugene and I went to most of the games from the early 70s until I graduated from HS in 1982. During that whole time they basically looked like the Green Bay Packers. No one ever talked about the uniforms, or the team either for that matter. You could walk up to the stadium on game day 1/2 hour before kickoff and buy good tickets to watch the Ducks get their butts whipped in a half-full stadium.
In any event, I say let the players have their fun. Why should they they be forced to adapt to the style tastes of aging boosters? They are the ones putting in all the blood sweat and tears for what amounts to sub-minimum wages. Yes they get scholarships. But the average player would probably come out ahead financially if he just worked at McDonalds for the same amount of hours he puts into football and then pays his own way. A very tiny minority ever makes it to the pros.
In any event, I rather like the green and white uniforms. The yellow ones I can do without though.
10:56 p.m.
Sep 15, '06
and how do you define "education" Chuck? going to classes and nothing else? my education was a lot broader than that; a lot of people's are. and i can tell you, the win by OSU in baseball this year was huge here, not just because of sports but because of the quality of the people involved. education involves the whole of life, whether it's living in the lab, playing sports, being a musician, or being a C-student who learns to live life fully.
UO does a pretty good job of making sure its athletes are also students. the problems of star jocks thinking they walk on water is societal, but a coach like Mike Belotti can keep most of the kids in touch with reality. football & basketball bring in a ton of money, and that gets spread around pretty well (although those teams do get the glitziest of the goodies). but until you've been at Autzen and enjoyed them stomping hell out of OSU or UW, or been to a game at Mac Court (men or women), you can't really appreciate what a blast it is for players and fans. a basketball win at home against UCLA is a great way to cope with a long Eugene winter and a pile of books that never seems to end.
5:04 p.m.
Sep 16, '06
Nike Schmikey - sure its a mildly interesting conversation to have but DID YOU JUST SEE THAT GAME ?????? GO DUCKS !
Sep 16, '06
I don't find my alma mater's relationship with Nike to be a problem itself, so long as the University and its student body keeps Nike within bounds on ethical behavior (i.e. making sure that shoe production isn't contracted to "sweatshop" type of conditions). It's a good balance. Most atheltic programs should be so lucky as to have this relationship with Nike. It helped build the new Law School and has been a huge boost to the College of Business, too.
A bigger problem seems to me to be the combined influence of Eugene area business and media that helps pressure the UO to make football more important than it should be. With the exception of OSU and WSU, no other schools in the Pac-10 have so much economic impact directly attributable to a sports program. In Eugene, the narcotic influence of the dollars that pour into town for Oregon football seem to have suspended all sense of proportion and academic mission. The Ducks football program has become bigger than the great legacy of Oregon academics and that is shameful.
I will never forget a conversation I got into at Cincinnati airport waiting for commuter transfer to take me into Memphis. I got drawn into a conversation with an Ohio State guy and a Notre Dame guy. I said I went to Oregon. "Oh yeah, that's a jock school," they replied. Travel enough outside the opium den of Duck football that is the Eugene-to-Portland area and you start to hear that fairly often these days. While I love Duck football, that perception of the University of Oregon taking hold isn't worth a BCS Championship.
Sep 17, '06