Last week, Oregon St. Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis referred to something the ticket office is referring to as an "amnesty" program in his periodic report to Beaver Nation, but did not explain what it entailed.

Today, the details were explained. The term "amnesty" is totally misleading. It could be of real value to you, however, if you have been partnering with someone on the purchase of season tickets for football, basketball, or baseball.

As DeCarolis explains in his statement, season tickets bought as a package are all in the name of one person, and the accrued time in the program, and priority for access to tickets when demand exceeds supply, like some bowl games, can not normally be transferred except to family members, usually in the case of death, and such.

Yet many groups like to get their tickets as a single purchase, in order to keep the group together. This can be of considerable significance, as anyone who has been the recipient of randomly distributed tickets to road games can attest.

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Oregon St. received their 25th. commitment for the 2012 football recruiting season when Rommel Mageo from Pago Pago, American Samoa verbaled to the Beavers this week.

Here's his video:

Mageo, who is unranked by both Scout.com and Rivals.com, is a 6'2", 225 lb. middle linebacker that Oregon St. is looking at to delay enrollment until winter term 2013.

While Oregon St. isn't over the maximum number of players they can sign, they are headed for being well over the 85 scholarship limit if nearly all of the commits come thru next week with a signed LOI. So there will certainly be some number of delayed enrollments, something that is becoming increasingly common, as many players who redshirt at some point complete their degree during fall term of that 5th. year.

Grey-shirts that start winter term often therefore actually complete their degree in a subsequent fall term.

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The Beavers seemed to have finally hit their stride, sweeping the LA schools. But the Ducks are even hotter, winning 4 straight Pac 12 games to sit atop the standings with Cal. When these two locomotives collide, which team will be left standing? More after the jump.

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Last week was good for what ailed us in Beaver Nation. The biggest surprise was that WSU beat Cal. Sagarin thought they were 5.5 point dogs. It helps to put some perspective on what the Sagarin point spread can tell us. If the spread is within 6 and the underdog is at home then the game is a toss up. With that in mind I give you the OSU-UO spread. OSU is favored by 0.23 pts. That's right, less than one half of one half of one point. It is the closest spread of any game in the Pac this weekend. Good thing they are saving it for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. My heart is with OSU but my money is on Oregon. That spread is too close for the home dog to really lose.

The wins last week helped to push the Beavs back to higher in the standings. Sagarin predicts them to finish 4th again but this time they are tied with the Ducks. That still has them meeting Oregon in the second round of the Pac-12 tournament. Somehow, someway, the Beavs will finish 4th. That is kind of hard to believe.

I checked the RPI recently and the Beavs are somewhere around 140 and the Ducks are around 60. Sagarin on the other hand loves the Beavs more and has them around 55 in Predictor and 73 overall while the Ducks hover around 100 in both Sagarin ratings. I have put a lot of time into this Sagarin thing and I hope he turns out to be right.

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With most of the attention being garnered by the men's team (both good and bad so far this season) I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on the women's season so far. Not totally sure it is the mid-way point overall, but the women are also on the final stretch of their 2011-12 season.

The women this season are also having their struggles in conference play with a record of 3 and 5. Much like their counterparts the men the team started out well in non-conference play going 9 and 2 and winning their first six games (including a non-record counting exhibition game). Funny enough the women also have paralled the men with some tough conference losses, such as a double OT loss to Washington State and a last second loss to Arizona. At the same time they have had some impressive overall performances such as beating Arizona State and playing the 4th ranked Cardinal tough in a 67 to 60 loss that the Beavs were winning at half time (35 to 31).

I was at the Arizona loss and it was interesting in how much it reminded my of watching the men's team this year in that the Beavs and WIldcats played a pretty rough first half, then things got going in the second half and actually looked as if OSU was going to take control, but then some sloppy last minute play and execution on both sides of the ball ended in a heartbreaking loss much like what happened when the men played Arizona! But from my brief observations this season I was impressed with the inside game of the Beavs, especially on defense such as Patricia Bright (featured in the upper right) who has a mind-staggering 66 blocks to date! (But wow is women's basketball officiating the polar opposite of men's in that they actually let them play?!?)

Some highlights so far this season for the Beavs include: Patricia Bright's average of 3.5 blocks per game that leads the Pac-12 and is fourth in the country (and is the sixth-most in a single season challenging the record set last season by El Sara Greer). Sage Indendi (right) making her 100th career three-pointer (now is at 102). And the team's leading scorer being Freshman Ali Gibson. Additionally for the most part, except for two games (losses to pretty good St. Marys and California teams), the team has not lost games by large margins and have been in the middle of almost all their games. Of course all these individual accomplishments and team minor victories does not mean they will all end up translating into a winning record, but the signs are there for a possible strong final run this season.

Following are some season stats and a few more pics, and just to note that women's Civil War game will be televised live this Saturday on FSN at 4:00 in what looks to be an important game for both teams in terms of conference standings.

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It's another cold, rainy day in the valley, so of course Benny (and figgi) are thinking about baseball. After all, the season does start in just 44 days, and season tickets are on sale. The first formal practice is Friday.

Baseball America has released their pre-season rankings, and Oregon St. is ranked 23rd, which is 5th. highest of the Pac-12 11 (Colorado, remember, doesn't field a baseball team). Florida is atop the rankings, and Stanford is #2.

South Carolina and Arkansas come next, with Arizona rounding out the top 5. Other ranked teams from the west include UCLA, at 14th, and Arizona St. at 17th. from the conference, and Cal-State Fullerton, who round out the top 25.

Boydsworld.com has also rated the strength of schedules of teams, and again, the Pac-12 is the toughest conference in baseball. The four toughest schedules belong to Stanford, USC, Oregon. and UCLA. In fact, 8 of the toughest 9 are faced by the Pac, with California, Washington St., Arizona St., and Washington in spots 6-9.

Oregon St. actually has the softest schedule in the conference, with the Beavers coming in at #35 overall. The other conference teams are Utah at #26 and Arizona at #29. The reason for this is the Beavers' relatively soft non-conference schedule, rated 130th of the 298 "Division I" teams. Stanford, by contrast, plays the #2 non-conference schedule to go along with the brutal Pac-12 schedule.

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Oregon St.has received a verbal commitment for the 2012 football recruiting class from Chris Young from Auburn, WA.

Young, a 6'2", 220 lb. safety, has played the last 2 years at Arizona Western Community College in Yuma, AZ, the same place DT Calvin Tonga, who previously committed to the Beavers, is coming from.

Young is rated a 3 star safety prospect by both Rivals.com and Scout.com, and was named him a Junior College All-American and the National Junior College Athletic Association's Defensive Player of the Year.

Here's his video:

Young was also considering Washington State, Indiana, New Mexico State, Ohio State, Oregon, USC, and Washington.

Young has 3 years in which to play 2 seasons left of his eligibility. Young brings the commit list at the moment to 24 for the Beavers.

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