When Oregon's Biggest Duck Steps Off the Bus, the Big Ten Will Change Its Question

Part of the reason following the Ducks is so rewarding is because everything they do is for a reason.

In prior years, the height/weight information has been a closely guarded secret.  It hasn't appeared on the roster at goducks.com, for example.

This year they published it. Gave the beat reporters two sheets and encouraged them to post a photo on X. Look up a player or a position group and there it is. Jeffrey Bassa is a senior from Kearns High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, 6-2, 235, for example. He gained seven pounds of muscle in the off season.

The why here is that for 8 months reporters and pundits have been asking the Ducks, "Are you ready for the Big Ten?" The height/weight sheets are the emphatic first two pages of the answer.

For The Team Out West, the better question is: "Is the Big Ten ready for us?"

Today is our anniversary. The Lovely Mrs. Bliss and I have been married three glorious years. Sharon has a class to teach this morning via Zoom on the Wi-Fi from the condo in Gearheart and I'm writing stories. This afternoon we'll reconvene for a long walk and a game of Fetchball with Cholla, the Tez Johnson of Dogs. Tez is 5-10, 165. Cholla is 42 inches tall and 50 pounds, but she doesn't like talking about her weight. But hey, the Big Ten keeps asking. They are definitely not ready for Tez, or Cholla, or Oregon fans, who always seeking out the answers to the questions that really matter.

Chances are by the Purdue game the Big Ten will be asking a different series of questions. The answer to their first one will be devastatingly obvious when Shaq steps off the bus. He's 6-8, 375, the most athletic big human you may ever see.