Just this morning the 2024 Preseason Coaches' Poll was released, with the Oregon Ducks ranked number three behind Georgia and Ohio State, just ahead of Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. Within a half hour of its release, fulltime political pundit, part-time sports reporter Clay Travis declared the Ducks were overrated.
Travis is a Tennessee lawyer who hosts a syndicated conservative talk show with Buck Sexton. He's also the founder of OutKick, a conservative sports and political commentary website. Travis freely mixes sports with his politics: he founded the website partly to counter what he calls a liberal bias in sports media outlets like ESPN.
Overrated? The Ducks feature an offense that scored 44.2 points a game last season that returns 144 career starts on the offensive line and the best wide receiver corps in the nation. They boast an improved defense bolstered by the portal acquisition of defensive tackles Jamaree Caldwell and Derrick Harmon, defensive backs Jabbar Muhammad, Kobe Savage, Kam Alexander and Brandon Johnson
They're picked third in Phil Steele's preseason power poll, third in Athlon Sports preseason Top 25, 4th by Lindy's, 4th by Joel Klatt of Fox Sports. The Ducks were 12-2 last season, ranked 6th in the final AP Top 25 poll after a 42-6 victory over Liberty in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.
Travis is based in Nashville. He picks 9-4 Tennessee as his underrated team, which suggests a bias of his own.
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