The Oregon Ducks are entering the 2026-27 season with a roster that looks almost nothing like the one that stumbled through last year’s 12-win disaster. Outside of forward Sean Stewart, the Ducks are basically starting over after a 2025-26 campaign wrecked by the season-ending hand injury to point guard Jackson Shelstad and finished with the program’s lowest win total in nearly two decades under Dana Altman.
That reset, though, is exactly why Oregon is drawing attention as a Big Ten sleeper. CBS Sports analyst Jon Rothstein pointed to the Ducks as a preseason team to watch, and he made clear that Altman is a huge part of the equation.
"Dana Altman didn't forget how to coach," Rothstein said. "He was ruptured by injuries last year. I think Oregon is a team with this personnel, with Dana Altman, that will find its way back into the NCAA Tournament."
The new-look group comes with plenty of talent. Oregon’s incoming core is headlined by 2025 four-stars Dwayne Aristode, who was at Arizona, Jasper Johnson from Kentucky and Taylor Bol Bowen from Alabama. The Ducks also add Tyrone Riley IV, who was a double-digit scorer for San Francisco as a sophomore, along with former Boston College guard Fred Payne and former Boise State forward Andrew Meadow, both of whom averaged in double figures last season.
Rothstein also tied Oregon’s outlook to the NCAA’s new 76-team tournament format for 2027, which adds eight more spots to the field. With expansion expected to tilt the balance even more toward power conferences, he suggested the Big Ten could send 12 or 13 teams to the tournament. In his view, Oregon has a real shot to be one of them.
From the outside, last season’s collapse is hard to shake. But this is a different roster now, and seven months from now, the Ducks could be hearing their name on Selection Sunday.
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Mario Cristobal's Biggest Oregon Recruiting Misses Still Sting
Mario Cristobals recruiting pitch at Oregon was built on landing elite talent and turning it into program-changing production, and for a while the Ducks had every reason to believe they were stacking blue-chip difference-makers. The names Kingsley Suamataia, Ty Thompson and Justin Flowe all carried five-star buzz when they arrived, the kind of haul that can reshape a roster and raise expectations in a hurry.
Instead, each path turned into a reminder that recruiting rankings only tell part of the story. Suamataia barely got on the field before moving on, Thompson never quite found a clear runway at quarterback, and Flowes time in Eugene was slowed by injury and limited opportunity. For Oregon, the sting is not just in what those players were supposed to become, but in how much promise was left hanging when their tenures ended elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Is Facing The One Debate Ducks Fans Are Tired Of
Oregon has spent plenty of time hearing the same question since joining the Big Ten: can the Ducks really handle being the leagues standard-bearer? Brandon Walker revived that debate by pointing to Oregons recent playoff disappointments, the kind of outside noise that tends to follow a program with championship expectations. For a team that has already had to answer for its place in a new conference, it is the sort of conversation the Ducks would rather leave behind.
Inside the building, the message is much simpler. Dante Moore framed his motivation around the people around him, not rankings or public narratives, and that is the mindset Oregon has leaned on as it tries to turn Big Ten status into Big Ten authority. Dan Lannings job is to keep the group insulated from the chatter, and the Ducks know the easiest way to quiet the debate is to handle business on the field when the season opens against Boise State. [Read more 🡒]
Dante Moore Just Weighed In On Auburn's Place In Rivalry History
Dante Moore has a front-row view of what makes college footballs biggest rivalries matter, and the Oregon quarterback recently put his own stamp on the conversation. As one of the cover athletes for EA Sports College Football 2027 and the first Ducks player on the games cover since Joey Harrington in 2002, Moore weighed in on the sports most heated matchups and included Oregon-Washington among the elite group, alongside Alabama-Auburn and Michigan-Ohio State.
For Oregon fans, his perspective carries a little extra weight because it comes after the Ducks 2025 win at Washington, a result that snapped a long Seattle drought and underscored how much that series still means. Moores take also serves as a reminder that while the national powers get plenty of attention, Oregons rivalry with Washington has earned a place in the same conversation, even if the debate over where it fits in the hierarchy is far from settled. [Read more 🡒]