I posted this as a comment in a postgame thread but thought making a fanpost out of it might expand the viewership by one or two eyeballs. (Yes I'm an optimist)

Forgive the scream of consciousness here…

For a team that was pretty much irrelevant for the first 100 years of its history — and the first 35 of mine — the last twenty years have been mind-bogglingly awesome for guys like me, who grew up in Eugene, whose parents were Ducks, and who dutifully served as ushers in Boy Scout uniforms in 1969. Who bounced around a virtually empty Autzen during games against Utah that bookended a 14 game losing streak. Who sat under blankets in section 1 in the early 80s chanting "RUN! RUN! PASS!… RUN! RUN! PASS!" Who wondered where Bob Toledo got that hair, and got frustrated when national announcers would confuse Oregon with that team up 99W. Whose team was, primarily, remembered as "where Dan Fouts went to college." We were the school that could have a player rape scandal that few heard about and fewer remember. You hear people complaining about the Oakland A’s stadium and the sewage problems? Autzen had the same issue — the field wasn’t the only thing built below the water table, and for several years there was a surcharge on tickets to pay for septic repairs. For decades, the predominant feature of the Autzen rim was the rows of HoneyBuckets that seemed to go on forever.

We were mediocrity, institutionalized. Even the occasional bursts of greatness were just that — bursts. Consider this: Oregon won five conference championships before 1994 — and never won one of them outright; we were always either lucking into a Rose Bowl bid or getting screwed out of one.

Since the 1994 breakthrough, when we became one of the few teams to ever win the conference by two games, it’s just been astounding. Even those familiar with the Every Oregon Game Spreadsheet might not have noticed the little addendum at the bottom of the main spreadsheet, showing overall record, The Suffering™ and the record since The Pick. It’s that last item that makes me grin like a cheshire duck.

Counting last night’s game, Oregon is 190-66-0 since Kenny Wheaton cut back to greatness. That’s basically three games won for every loss. I don’t know how that record compares to other teams over 20 years and frankly I don’t care, because it compares SO well to what I grew up with it’s borderline hilarious.

We’ve had one losing season since 1994.

I know, bowl games are no longer the touchstone that they once were, but we’ve only missed two opportunities since 1994 — and if the current bowl glut had existed in 1996, we would have made that one too.

We’ve had a player (LMJ) who I thought would go down in history as the GOAT.. then Marcus shows up and shoves The Michael to second place.

We’ve agonized over assistant coaches, insisting we knew more than the staff, and been happily forced to eat our words (well, in most cases, I still submit that Rich Stubler was the dumbest hire Bellotti ever made and he must have had some compromising photos of Bellotti’s wife to get that job).

We’ve survived heartaches (Charlie Waters losing his son, Droughns breaking his ankle at UCLA, Clemens and the ankle [WTH is with us and ankles anyway?], Terrence Kelly never making it to campus, Colvin’s brain cramp, Dixon sleeping), assorted brain cramps (Tamoni Joiner, Herman Ho-Ching, CH13, Willie Lyles, Lyerla).

This team and program have indefatigable spirit. And this season’s the icing on the cake. Given the national prejudice against any Western players not at U$C, I thought the closest we would ever get to a Heisman was when LaMike was pushing Newton. And maybe someday we’d get lucky and work our way through the BCS minefield and actually play well for 4 quarters in a championship.

Now: validation. On so many levels. First Heisman for a non-Trojan since Jim Plunkett. First team into the first ever playoff. Another Rose Bowl — and this time there’s even a bonus for winning that one.

It’s us. It’s not USC. It’s Oregon.

Haters will just say "oh Phil Knight just bought himself a playoff team", forgetting that if all it took was money, Michigan would still be a perennial power, that U$C has a giagantic endowment and none of the constraints public schools have to tolerate, and that T. Boone Pickens has poured as much or more into Okie St. The money helps — there’s no denying that — but I really think Uncle Phil’s motivations go beyond the easy targets. He was a student athlete. He understands how difficult it is for kids to hold together tasks that are, by nature, conflicting. The Jaqua center is a study facility, not another workout space. (And if it was all about Nike, you’d think our players would have better footing on crappy surfaces, but I digress).

How many of us thought it was never going to get any better than the 2002 Fiesta Bowl? Be honest. We thought it was cyclical, and we’d have to reload. And for a few years it looked like we’d be back to the NINE WINS IS GREAT club.

Things have changed. Something has been established at Oregon that is, I think, sustainable. This doesn’t mean it can’t be lost — remember, uw fans thought their NW dominance was the natural order of the universe — and eternal vigilance is required. But it was meaningful in 2010 when Oregon became the first new team to reach #1 in the AP poll in 20 years.

Whatever Finebaum thinks, Oregon is in The Club. And I’m going to spend the next month plus enjoying the benefits of membership.

I’m happier than a pig in sherbet. I hope y’all are enjoying this as much as I am, but seriously, as much as I appreciate your capacity for enjoyment, I doubt that’s possible.

And it's nice to know that the biggest problem I now have is figuring out how to rewrite my contribution to Wikipedia's Oregon Football page (that's my photo of LMJ) to reflect Mariota's contributions. Tough job, I know.