....now let the "big dogs" eat!

I gave it a day...actually a few days. I haven't thought about it because I knew what the outcome would be from the beginning. I haven't talked about it with my friends, or with the guy down at the local Shell station (he loves the Ducks). I still haven't watched Sports Center simply because I don't want to watch it all unfold again. But I think I'll try and give it a shot right now.

First, the Ducks played an amazing game, and it was one of the hardest fought battles in BCS history. Know what is weak though? Nike has a new advertisement that pays homage to the Oregon Ducks, losers of Monday night’s BCS title game against the Auburn Tigers. The ad reads “Everyone Loses Games. Few Change Them.” What part of the game Oregon changed, however, is up for debate. They took on an SEC team....and lost (even the experts predicted it). You knew Auburn was better.

Oregon is Nike’s pet football program, thanks in large part to the fact that Phil Knight, the company’s co-founder, is an alum (he donated $100 million to Oregon athletics in 2007). In addition to the donation, Knight also makes sure that Nike outfits the team with 384 possible uniform combinations (including those crazy neon socks they wore in the title game).

As for the advertisement, I’m not exactly sure what it’s implying. I think what it’s saying is that Oregon somehow changed “the game” because of their bold sartorial choices. In essence, “Okay, we lost, but we looked great doing it.”

Give me a break! Are you serious?

"Oregon is one of the fastest teams in the nation, and we wanted them to look fast," Todd Van Horn, Nike's top football uniform designer, told the press. Visually, the colorway of the uniforms is meant to bring your eyes to the fastest moving parts of the player's bodies -- the hands, and in particular the shins, which move twice as fast as the thighs do while running. The bright yellow socks, which blended seamlessly into the cleats, drew attention to that fact.

Those color contrasts are functional as well. "We hear constantly from teams and quarterbacks that having a bit more visual acuity and contrast on the field makes things easier," says Van Horn. The white jerseys and grey pants, combined with the green accents, allowed the players to stand out vividly against their Auburn opponents.

You might have also caught sight of those flashy helmets -- the swirling pattern on the outside emphasizes the fact that Nike's padding system on the thighs and shoulders contain carbon fiber plates (layered over breathable foam and a moisture wicking base). Nike worked with a company that usually applies custom graphics to cars to create the special decals applied to the helmet. Combined with the green highlights of the Oregon "O," these created a visual vibration you could probably discern on your TV as an almost moiré pattern effect.

Monday’s national title game had an interesting corporate subplot: the Ducks are outfitted by Nike, while the Auburn Tigers’ uniforms are made by upstart apparel company Under Armour. The BCS title represents the first major sports championship won by Under Armour, and the fact that it was over Nike probably sweetened the pot a bit.

Drawing the focus to the Oregon players may have helped the QB to find his receivers. However, the relative drabness of the Auburn players may have enabled them to sneak in for the two picks they got.

The challenge I saw was in the function over the form. Both teams were slipping and sliding all over the place, however it seemed Oregon more than Auburn. Same issue appeared with TCU in the Rose Bowl with "specially designed" equipment supposedly designed by Nike just for the Rose Bowl.

But please Duck fans...please stop saying 'what if.'

"What if" Darron Thomas (QB) hands the ball to LaMichael and he walks in for a touchdown at the start of the second quarter instead of making a 'bonehead read on the defensive tackle. ..."What if" Cliff Harris' second interception wasn't called incomplete and the Ducks take over. Then Newton doesn't throw a touchdown pass to Kodi Burns on the next play...... "What if" Kenjon Barner doesn't get stopped at the one on fourth down and scores a touchdown? Or "what would have happened" if the Ducks had decided to kick a field goal instead of going for it?

But what really happened was...with just under two minutes left in the fourth the Tigers had a first and ten on their own forty. They would hand the ball off to Michael Dyer and he'd pick up about seven yards after being brought down by Eddie Pleasant.... Dyer got up and looked for a ref to hand the ball to, and then all of the sudden he took off down field. He ended up picking up 37 yards on the play...a whistle had never blown the play dead.

"What if" Dyer had been ruled down on the play? Would Auburn still have picked up enough yards to kick a field goal? Maybe. But we'll never know. But you need to know the 3 main things to contemplate about Oregon's loss to Auburn.

#1) It wasn’t Oregon’s fault. The turf was slippery, the crowd and the broadcast was pro-Auburn, and the head referee spoke in a tone that seemed to say, “We’re gonna put you slimy hippies from the West in your place.” Forget the fact that the Ducks were cheated out of an interception and a wrist does not make a running back down in the 4th quarter of the BCS Championship- this one wasn’t meant to be.

#2) Wait- maybe it was their fault. Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas played resiliently and threw a handful of pinpoint passes, but he made the incorrect read on option plays all night long and he smiled and laughed way too much immediately following the game. Many would also like some questions answered about the play calling. Why pound the middle- the strength of the Auburn defense- all night long? Why go for it on 4th down when the red zone offense had no traction whatsoever? Why stick with a ground-based strategy that your QB was struggling to execute? Hindsight is certainly 2020- which will more than likely also be a year that marks a decade since the Ducks let one slip away.

#3) God likes the SEC. The brass at Auburn is convinced that the man in the sky is a big fan. In post game interviews, both Cam Newton and coach Gene Chizik suggested that God himself (they noted God is male) is entirely preoccupied with making the world know that both they and Auburn University are incredible entities, which the 21-year-old Newton explained to us is how God displays His own greatness.

Indeed, we learned a lot about the Universe on a Monday night in Arizona. Peering into the theories of Newton and Chizik, the entire college football season was a mere game of tiddlywinks by the big man above, a predetermined and intricately orchestrated celebration of the gruff coach and the scandal-laden quarterback, who moments after the game told America that God is personally ‘using me as vessel every single day’. Many now wait with anxious anticipation to see how a vessel of God does on the Wonderlic test.

We also learned...the game is over so move on Duck fans (and let’s be honest…the SEC will likely be back again…and again…and again in the title game for years to come….not the Ducks). The SEC is a conference of proven winners. Let's see if you get by Utah next year.

Oregon, your 15 minutes of fame has ended....now let the "big dogs" from the SEC eat!