By Henry Hansen
By Henry Hansen
At the beginning of the season, the University of Oregon’s football team was ranked #2 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. Since then, they have dropped out of College Football Playoff contention. They have the most expensive team in the nation, with an NIL* budget of over $44.3 million, and no results have shown it. In their first game of the season, they played unranked Boise State; they had a close victory, 34-27, in which they squeaked out a win at home by coming back from a 17-14 deficit. The next week, they went and played Oklahoma State, where they lost 31-39. This was an embarrassing loss, but it was nothing compared to what happened against UCLA, who had not played a ranked team up to that point and only beat Maryland by three points. Oregon embarrassingly lost to this team; Oregon fumbled the ball five times and threw two interceptions. The Ducks fumbled the game away, and now they have no chance of making it to the College Football Playoff. As a fan of this team, I am devastated, but this was the final straw. I cannot see how a team with an NIL budget that is the largest in the entirety of College Football could lose to two teams whose combined NIL budget isn’t even as much as Oregon’s. I was almost done with Oregon this season, but I decided to tune into another game. It was a game against Illinois, a former College Football Playoff contender, which is now a shell of its former self. I was excited to watch a blowout because I wanted to see Oregon win again. Even if they were out of the CFP, I didn’t care; I believed we could win and make a semi-decent bowl game. However, they let me down again, losing 21-10 to Illinois. This sealed any chance of making the CFP and destroyed the hope of Oregon fans around the country.
*NIL stands for Name, Image, Likeness, which a player must be compensated for the use of, per the current NCAA ruling.