I'm telling you, these Civil War games with a Rose Bowl berth on the line are getting so ho-hum. It would mark the third time in this decade alone that it could happen with a couple of firsts. This could pan out where its a 'winner takes the Roses' game for the first time in 45 years. The 2000 game was the Ducks to lose...and they did.  The 2008 was the Beavers to lose...and they did. For the first time in this decade or even millennia, the game will be decided in Autzen and not Reser and both are masters of their own destiny. If you'd sat in the stands in the late 1970's and mumbled in a drunken stupor (as thats all most people did at Beaver and Duck games back in that era) the Beavs and Ducks would both be playing for Rose Bowl berths on a regular basis in 30 years, your friends would call the paramedics to have you taken away for alcohol poisoning. Nostradamus wrote a long quattrain explaining the whole thing it has been said.

One thing I don't get is the myopic 'finger up the nose" staunch Duck/Beaver supporter who wants to see their program on top and their nemesis school in the cellar. Having both teams fighting for the top spot is good for the respective school and also good for the state. The amount of press coverage from national media grows exponentially when you have strong football programs at both universities.

 I have my doubts the Ducks will escape Tucson with a win. The wicked and evil sorcerer known as Mike Stoops has created a burial ground for Ducks quarterbacks in the past. Ask Kellen Clemens (broken ankle) and Dennis Dixon (blown Heisman AND knee). However, if Chip Kelly can capture some of the magic that Bellotti had early in his tenure as a Mr. November type of coach, then the build-up to December 3rd will be magical. And both schools benefit immensely from the national hype. If either the Ducks or Beav's had been wallowing in at 5-6 when the other was sitting in the Rose Bowl catbird seat, there would still be regional media but national media would be as rare as a warm and sunny type of Civil War in early December. What happens when both teams are strong, the recognition just explodes and recruiting and even booster donation doors usually closed to Riley and Kelly will swing magically open. Meanwhile the two 'forgotton' schools to the north stare down on us with envy. So every time you extoll your football intelligence to those around you and how much better things would be if your school (fill in OSU or UO) was great and those dastardly smug jerks (*fill in OSU or UO) were in the cellar and winless like they should be...I want you to put one finger up your nose, black out a tooth, put a dirty sock up each nostril and then explain why its better if one state school is tanking and the other is strong. If you think about it, if the Ducks and Beavers start dueling it out more often for supremacy of the PAC-10, maybe the age old malady of East Coast ignorance might finally come to an end and broadcasters and writers will learn to tell the two team apart.

You have to go back all the way to 1964 to find the Beavers and Ducks both playing for the Roses. Tommy Prothro and Len Casonova. The Ducks were fast and the Beavers were big. The Beavers were quarterbacked by none other than the architect of the "Barbie Doll Killers" as Paul Brothers, the Willamette High School girls basketball coach took them to Pasadena with Pete Pifer and Billy Main in a losing effort against Michigan.

Sorry but both games played in Willamette Valley this past Saturday were real yawners. As expected. The Huskies and Sun Devils are both in a downward spiral. If the Dawgs have anything left to look forward to, its that they get a bone called "The Apple Cup" when they get to beat up on the hapless Cougs. We asked the Cray Supercomputer to calculate the odds of an upset in the Palouse this weekend when the Beavers go north. The computer is not down adding the zero's. For Arizona State the small gleam of light might be a third string quarterback who shows promise but has been buried on the depth chart due to injuries. Samson Szakacsy looks like a quarterback who can finally live up to his high school hype as one of the top quarterbacks in the country.

The only highlight of the weekend was in Corvallis. For those that lingered around Reser Stadium long after the crowds had filtered out, the University of Washington and Oregon State marching bands put on a battle that had me standing and applauding as they went back and forth with favorite songs, often playing together and both Husky and Beaver majorettes and conductors swirled and twirled and conducted between the purple and gold band on the field and the orange and black clad band in the endzone grandstand. It reminded me of Big 10 Saturdays where many fans stay long after the game to watch their bands play. There's nothing that beats a warm October afternoon after the Wisconsin game when the Badger band does a tribute to "Octoberfest" and there are still 75,000 fans all standing doing the Chicken Dance.

 Oh, my eyesight isn't what it once was but I'd swear I spotted Oregon Prep Sports very own Andy Wooldridge out on the field during halftime with the other band dads doing what could only be descibed as performing something that resembled a macabre version of Napoleon Dynamite's "Happy Hands Club" goes wild.

Meanwhile, the funniest band moment of the week goes to the Stanford band who traveled to the LA Coliseum to perform "A Tribute to Joe Francis." Francis happens to be a USC grad most famous for creating the "Girls Gone Wild" cinematic art.

I can't believe I'm actually writing more about the weekend 'band action' than PAC-10 football. Its a sure sign the apocalypse is upon us.  Also, if you believe in bad luck, then the Ducks will lose to Arizona and then turn around and beat the Beavers. And at the Rose Bowl halftime tribute, both disgruntled Beaver and Duck fans will watch the Stanford band do a tribute to Woody Hayes in his epic meltdown "Football Coaches Gone Crazy."  

Meanwhile, the Cray Supercomputer keeps tacking on zero after zero with lightning fast precision....