EUGENE -- The spread in the visiting athletic director's suite at Autzen Stadium was top-notch on Saturday. Valerie Cleary and her guests dined on a cheese platter, roast beef, turkey and an array of sweet sliced fruits fanned out on a serving tray.

Someone even left a gift bag, and a "good luck" note for Cleary on a coffee table, too. Also, the AD collected a $400,000 check from Oregon. But it wasn't what Portland State needed. None of it. Not really anyway.

Oregon beat the Vikings 62-14 at Autzen Stadium. The Ducks got a victory. They sold $9 beers. Justin Herbert threw four touchdown passes. It was a very productive day for coach Mario Cristobal and his program. But when Portland State loaded the bus on Saturday it carried home the same glaring problem that follows it everywhere.

"We need a home," Cleary said.

Portland State will play four of its five home games this season at Hillsboro Stadium. The other, Oct. 13 vs. Northern Colorado, will be played at Providence Park, the Vikings' long-time home which the MLS Timbers have systematically squeezed them out of over the years. This week, in fact, PSU was informed that it will not be able to use one side of the stadium because the roof will be off during the Timbers' 4,000-seat expansion.

Portland State is homeless.

They know it. The Timbers know it. Now you do, too. And while Portland State would love to erect a $50 million home football stadium near its campus, or perhaps join nearby Lincoln High School on what could be a shared public project, there's the matter of raising the funds to do that. So yeah, $400,000 banked on Saturday, and $49.6 million to go.

Herbert hit four different receivers with touchdown passes in the first half on Saturday. The "announced" crowd of 47,210, felt a little light. And Portland State did its best to bleed the clock, keep its starters from being injured, and try to live to play another day. But I couldn't help but wonder what PSU would do with a guy like Phil Knight on its side.

Before kickoff in the press box on Saturday I bumped into Knight, who asked, "Why are you here?!?" I threw the same question back to him.

His answer: "I'm crazy."

Which brings me to a crazy thought. I wish Knight had taken a wrong turn in the press box and ended up in Cleary's suite for a few minutes during the blowout victory. Would never happen on accident. He knows the place so well he could navigate it in a power outage. But if he did, maybe they'd talk about how Knight, now with a net worth $35 billion according to Forbes, used to teach accounting classes at Portland State. Or maybe how the "Swoosh" was designed and born on the campus.

I'm not suggesting that Knight and his wife should just hand Portland State a $50 million gift that would fund the construction of an 8,000-seat stadium. I'm just thinking that the sides might want to share ideas because nobody understands how to grow an empire out of the back of trunk quite like "Shoe Dog."

Portland State is selling football out of a trunk right now.

Knight's loyalties to Oregon and Stanford are well known. But he and his wife's fingerprints are all over the place. They've supported medical research and business development and Philip Hampson Knight has authored the greatest entrepreneurial story in the history of our region. When inspired causes have needed a spark, he's often shown up with a flame thrower. Including at rival Oregon State, where Knight dropped in -- rather Nike did -- and paid a significant portion of now-retired baseball coach Pat Casey's salary. That Nike support, insiders say, helped add in the neighborhood of a $500,000-a-year raise that kept Casey from bolting Corvallis to Notre Dame in 2006.

Simply having Knight involved in a discussion might be enough for now. After all, what PSU really should do is build a joint project with Lincoln High School that would serve the entire state's high school programs. It could not only be home to the Vikings, but to the state championship games. It's the kind of big-picture stuff Nike has long been interested in.

Portland State needs a visionary on its side. That was never clearer than on Saturday as the Vikings performed on the field, and worried about their future off of it.

So yeah. Oregon is terrific. We think. Maybe. Tony Brooks-James broke 100 rushing yards. Transfer Tabari Hines caught a touchdown pass. And Herbert is so gifted that a Pittsburgh Steelers scout who watched him throw two touchdown passes in the first quarter scooped up his notes and left the building after 15 minutes of play.

"Seen enough," the scout said to a security guard on his way out.

He could have spoke for us all.