Canzano: Oregon Ducks face a delicate high-rent problem
How much of the cost will Duck fans absorb?
The University of Oregon athletic department does a terrific job branding itself as a blue-chip sports entity. It has an unmatched relationship with Nike, crazy-good facilities, and deep resources.
When five-star football recruits visit Eugene, they’re photographed sitting on a throne. Billionaire Phil Knight hangs out on the sideline at games. And the marketing arm of Oregon is a beast, reeling off “Hard Knocks” style videos that serve as a deft recruiting tool.
No school in America does a more effective job at promoting its high-rent address in the penthouse of college sports. Eugene is positioned publicly as college football’s Camelot, and the walls of the football castle cast an unmistakable and confident message.
Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens took a deep breath from all that this week and told me: “We don’t have unlimited resources.”
When SMU explored a move to the Pac-12 two summers ago, I talked with Chris Schoemann, the executive director of SMU’s high-octane “The Boulevard Collective.”
Schoemann told me that his staff had studied all the NIL collectives. The folks at the Boulevard Collective determined they would have buying power that fell short of only one university.
Said Schoemann: “It’s behind only Division Street. That’s where we are.”