The Oregon Ducks’ loss to Ohio State is setting in.  The Tuesday morning after the Buckeyes tromped the odds-on-favorite Oregon football juggernaut, Portland media downplayed details of the game.

Local TV stations acknowledged the loss, but the former media hype was gone.  During the game, almost everyone in the area was pulling hard for the Eugene-based team, especially since the Ducks scored the first touchdown in impressive style.  But eventually reality set in, and Ohio State pounded the Pac-12 team into submission 42-20, much as Oregon turned Florida State into chopped liver at the Rose Bowl.

For me, skepticism toward Urban Meyer remains, but his game plan was superb.  (While working as an ESPN analyst, Meyer took note of what Chip Kelly accomplished as Oregon’s coach, and converted Ohio State into the vaunted attack that won the day.)  And who knew that a third-string freshman quarterback by the name of Cardale Jones would step in admirably with stunning pinpoint passes so that his receivers outshone Marcus Mariota’s counterparts?  (Yesterday, Mariota announced he is making himself eligible for the NFL draft.)

For me, I’m left to wallow in the mud during football’s offseason, but I’ll watch Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators battle their way through the rest of their Southeastern Conference hoops schedule.  No matter how much I imagined it, my feet didn’t turn out to be webbed after all.

Winning the brass ring still is an Oregon dream, but we can hope the oodles of cash required to accomplish that goal will be trumped by the realization of how much it costs to realize an NCAA football championship.  Academic achievement is still the #1 university goal, right?

Or am I merely quacking up?