Every Time the Oregon Ducks were Mentioned on College GameDay Week Five

The Oregon Ducks football team is in “Tinsel Town," getting prepared for the floodlights of the Rose Bowl Stadium as they gear up for their first ever Big Ten Conference game as a newly inducted team. This is a historic game for the Oregon Ducks, as it marks a new chapter in not only their ledger, but college footballs’ as well.

So, of course, Duck fans are probably glued to their televisions in the early hours of Saturday morning, clamoring to see what was said by ESPN College Gameday analysts about this match-up.

The first and only chatter around the Ducks was on the Big Ten Saturday slate. The hosts mentioned that Oregon would be talked about later in the show, acknowledging the late kick off against UCLA.

Pat McAfee kept on quacking because the Aflac Duck himself was perched on analyst Stanford Steve’s broadcast desk. As the duck sat quietly, analysts Kirk Herbstreit and McAfee continued to pet the bird and talk about ducks, but not the Oregon Ducks.

“Ducks are very nice, they get a bad wrap,” analyst Desmond Howard said.

“Can he stay here the rest of the show?” joked Herbstreit.

Beyond this brief mention, the Oregon Ducks were never brought up again during the broadcast. With games like Louisville vs. Notre Dame, Georgia vs. Alabama, and Ole Miss vs. Kentucky taking up a majority of the air time, it seems that Oregon vs. UCLA wasn't as pressing a match-up to address. The lack of Oregon Duck talk could also be attributed to the late kick time of 8 p.m., something fans online are avidly complaining about.

One of the most iconic parts of Gameday is picking the slate of games for the week. Analysts Howard, Herbstreit, Lee Corso, McAfee, Nick Saban, and guest host, Saban’s wife Ms. Terry, all select their choices for who will win a slate of games. Oregon vs. UCLA was not chosen to be a showcased pick team.

Oregon was only mentioned once throughout the three hour show.

A notable conversation during Gameday included a panel on NIL. Saban discussed his desires for a governing body regarding name, image, and likeness rights for college athletes. The former coach stressed that most football fans and the analysts for Gameday agree athletes should be compensated, but the semantics around getting paid is interfering with the educational part of being a college athlete.

Saban argued the more players transfer due to money, the less likely they are to focus on their education. McAfee commented that, as a former player, he saw athletes that deserve to be compensated but weren’t in the past. Analyst Rece Davis stated that the people who come together to lay out the rules for this issue shouldn’t just be the four power conference commissioners, but also representatives for student athletes and their wellbeing.

Overall, the three hour program had interesting discussions about the future of college football and this week's current slate, but it’s becoming more and more evident from the past two weeks that Oregon is in the rear view mirror for discussions. With so little mentions, it will be intriguing to see if Oregon vs. Ohio State is still the de facto location for College Gameday on Oct. 12.

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