Oregon may have to prove itself on the field this season, but the Ducks already ran away with a different kind of Big Ten title.
During Big Ten Media Days, players and coaches were asked to pick the league’s best uniforms - other than their own - and Oregon came out on top in convincing fashion. The Ducks collected nine of the 20 votes, enough to finish well ahead of the rest of the conference in a video posted Monday by the official Big Ten X account.
The vote split the room in an interesting way, though. Coaches and players didn’t always see eye to eye, but both groups kept drifting back to Oregon’s look.
The Ducks opened with four votes and never let go of the lead. Penn State finished next with three, while Illinois and USC each picked up two. Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Rutgers landed one vote apiece, and 10 teams were left without a single nod.
Among the players, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore chose Ohio State as his favorite non-Duck uniform, while Buckeye quarterback Julian Sayin went with Rutgers. Still, Oregon’s jerseys drew plenty of support from quarterbacks around the league, including Michigan’s Bryce Underwood, Penn State’s Rocco Becht, Illinois’ Katin Houser and Michigan State’s Alessio Milivojevic. Indiana linebacker Isaiah Jones also backed the Ducks, and those five votes were enough to lock up the win.
The coaches’ side brought its own twists. Every Big Ten coach appeared in the video except Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Ohio State’s Ryan Day.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti stayed with his own defending champion Hoosiers, which effectively took his vote out of the race. Penn State coach Matt Campbell, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and UCLA’s Bob Chesney also refused to vote for another team.
“I don’t even think anybody does,” Bruins head coach Chesney said. “I think it’s us and only us.”
A handful of coaches had no problem leaning Oregon’s way. Purdue’s Barry Odom, Maryland’s Mike Locksley, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule and Michigan’s Kyle Whittingham all picked the Ducks. Penn State also did well in the coaching vote, with support from Illinois’ Bret Bielema, Washington’s Jedd Fisch and Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell.
Oregon won the coaches’ vote overall, but the classic looks of Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska also got recognition.
This wasn’t the first time the Ducks have cleaned up in a uniform popularity contest, either. At last summer’s Big Ten Media Days, Oregon dominated another fashion-based poll in a TikTok video from @strictlyfootball, taking 13 of 17 votes. Only UCLA and USC managed to take votes away from the Ducks, with two apiece.
Wisconsin center Jake Renfro put the sentiment plainly at the time.
“It’s going to be Oregon,” Renfro said in the TikTok. “They have some serious drip.”
The Big Ten may have narrowed the gap a little this summer, but Oregon still set the standard. The only question now is whether anyone can stop a Ducks three-peat next year.
In Other News...
Penn State Just Lost An Important Young Defender At A Bad Time
Penn States defense took a hit at an inconvenient moment when LaVar Arrington II went down with a knee injury that will require a procedure, a development confirmed by his father on Fox Sports Radio. The sophomore defensive end had been carving out a role for himself through special teams work, and the coaching staff had pointed to his effort and explosiveness as part of what made him an intriguing young piece on the roster.
Matt Campbell has not offered details on the injury or how long Arrington might be out, leaving the Nittany Lions with one more uncertainty as they sort through their depth. For a player still trying to build momentum in his second season, the timing is especially rough, and it now leaves Penn State waiting to see how the rotation and special teams plans hold up without him. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Reopens A Painful Joe Paterno Debate
Penn States decision to expand its All-Sports Museum inside Beaver Stadium is already stirring familiar emotions around the program. The new Paterno Family Football Experience Room will include an exhibit on Joe Paterno, and athletic director Pat Kraft said the space is meant to preserve and present the history of Penn State football, a history that still carries enormous weight for the school and its supporters.
Even so, the announcement has reopened a painful debate that never quite fades on this campus. For some fans, any new nod to Paterno inevitably brings back the universitys ties to the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, making the move feel less like a museum addition and more like a test of how Penn State chooses to frame its past. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Just Reignited Its Most Divisive Football Legacy Debate
A new permanent Joe Paterno exhibit has opened at the Penn State All-Sports Museum, giving visitors a closer look at one of the most influential and polarizing figures in the schools football history. The display includes items from Paternos office, awards and a timeline of his career, underscoring how deeply his name remains woven into the identity of the program decades after his peak years on the sideline.
The exhibits framing is what makes it impossible to ignore, especially for a fan base that has spent years wrestling with how to remember that era. It does not mention the child sexual abuse charges against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky or Paternos handling of the situation, and that choice is already shaping the conversation around the museum addition. Penn State coach Matt Campbell noted the importance of the programs history, but the question of how much of that history should be celebrated, and how much should be confronted, remains very much alive. [Read more 🡒]