Oregon-Ohio State game could show whether the Ducks’ move to the Big Ten was worth it

When it was announced that the University of Oregon was leaving the Pac-12 conference, there were a lot of feelings.

But those who were critical of the Ducks going to the Big Ten at least recognized that there were going to be some big, exciting games on the schedule this season.

It may not get any bigger or more exciting than this Saturday. The Ohio State Buckeyes will be in Eugene in a clash of two top-five teams.

Sports journalist Tyson Alger, who is the editor of online newsletter The I-5 Corridor, says this game could confirm the wisdom of the Ducks’ conference switch.

“This is why they went through all this stuff, right?,” Alger says. “It’s why they left the Pac-12. It’s why they threw away a 100-plus years of tradition. It’s because of the promise of games like this.”

Alger gave a preview of the highly anticipated game with OPB’s “All Things Considered” co-host, Geoff Norcross.

Related: Oregon hosts Ohio State on Saturday in one of college football’s most highly anticipated games

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Geoff Norcross: Autzen Stadium is not as big as some of the other stadiums in the Big Ten, but it can get loud. Do you anticipate a big home field advantage for the Ducks this Saturday?

Tyson Alger: Yeah, quite a bit. That’s the fascinating thing.

Looking at how Oregon compares to some of its new Big Ten colleagues is there’s some awfully big stadiums out in the Big Ten. Ohio State play at a stadium affectionately known as the Horseshoe, which sits about 102,000. When they go and play at Michigan, that stadium sits 107,000. When you look at Autzen Stadium and you take into account the crowd noise, it just doesn’t seem like a stadium that sits 54,000, and can maybe expand out to 60,000 with standing room only can bring that same type of noise.

But there’s just something about that place — it can hit the same gears as just about any other place that I’ve been. So I do think that this is going to be a more distinct home field advantage than I think maybe the opponents are giving the Ducks credit for.

Norcross: Well, given that Autzen is not as big as a lot of those stadiums that you mentioned, that would mean a limited number of seats. I’m wondering what you’re seeing out there about how that affects ticket prices.

Alger: It’s been kind of insane this week, especially looking at the secondary market. I’ve seen some Oregon-related Facebook groups kind of come to full meltdown. You’re seeing tickets at the base level in the upwards of hundreds of dollars — and if you want a better view, it gets into the quadruple digits there.

So Oregon’s had some big games in the past, but just in sheer hype I don’t think that I can remember anything that’s really compared to this one, because it’s the No. 3 team versus the No. 2 team.

It’s the first big game of this new era of super conferences where it’s Ohio State, which has kind of run the Big Ten for the last couple of decades, versus Oregon, which has kind of been the premier team in the PAC-12 before this merger.

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Norcross: Yeah, Oregon and Ohio State don’t have a lot of history, but they have played each other before. Is there anything in those previous games that might give us some clue about what to expect on Saturday?

Alger: One thing that I found really interesting is if you go back to Oregon’s last meeting against Ohio State, they went and played the Buckeyes in Columbus in 2021. The Buckeyes were favored to win that one by two scores, and the Ducks went in there and they upset them. It was one of the more shocking results that I can remember covering the Ducks.

A large part of that was Ohio State had an excellent offense, that’s been the Buckeyes’ bread and butter for a very long time — but their defense was just so porous that Oregon was able to really carve through them. Ryan Day, Ohio State’s coach talked about that being a little bit of an inflection point for their program, and understanding where they needed to improve moving forward.

Three years later, Ohio State’s put a very large emphasis on their defense. They come into Eugene with the number one defense in the country with still a very good offense. So I think you can look at their progression over the last three years — this is a much different Buckeyes team.

Oregon’s a little harder to make those throughline connections with, just because 2021 was when they were still under Mario Cristobal as head coach and obviously he’s in Miami now, and the Ducks are under Dan Lanning. But I think Lanning is 2-3 right now in his career against top 10 teams, and this is definitely the biggest game of his career so far at Oregon.

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Norcross: There’s a lot of rancor about Oregon moving to the Big Ten. I’m wondering what the outcome of this game might mean for people’s feelings about that move.

Alger: This is why they went through all this stuff, right? This is why they’ve lost the rivalries with Oregon State. It’s why they left the Pac-12. It’s why they threw away 100-plus years of tradition. It’s because of the promise of games like this of Oregon being on this stage where [ESPN’s] College GameDay is going to be in town where the national media descends upon Eugene.

This is going to probably be a scene unlike anything that I’ve really experienced covering Oregon football before. You just hope you get a good game out of it, because you’re going to have all this hype — and you would hate to see Ohio State come in and win by three or four scores and to have it be a nothingburger.