National Signing Day 2012: Oregon Is Team to Watch in Pac-12

The Oregon Ducks were very nearly faced with a disaster on the eve of national signing day, Chip Kelly was being courted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to become their new head coach.

Thankfully for the Eugene faithful, Kelly removed his name from consideration for the Bucs job, saying he had "unfinished business" to take care of at Oregon.

He does indeed. Down the road, Kelly is hoping to have the Ducks competing for a national championship in 2012. Before he gets to that point, he needs to round out his recruiting class before national signing day comes and goes.

I don't mean to offer any spoilers, but NSD could end up being a huge day for the Ducks.

It's already been a good recruiting season for Oregon, as Rivals.com has its recruiting class marked down as the 19th-best recruiting class in the country. However, Oregon hasn't been as successful as other schools in the Pac-12, namely Stanford and UCLA, and maybe Cal and USC as well. It depends on who you ask.

However, DuckSportsAuthority.com (subscription required) has it on good authority that the final weekend before NSD is going to be a big one for the Ducks. They'll be hosting quite a few visitors, including Missouri City, Texas wide receiver Chance Allen.

Allen is already committed to Oklahoma State, but he admitted there's a "chance" he will change his mind and commit to Oregon. He said his decision to commit to Oklahoma State was made in part because he didn't know what was going on with Kelly.

You can assume that the same is true of most, if not all, of the recruits that will be visiting Eugene this weekend. Things looked bleak for a moment, and Oregon's recruiting efforts had to pause, but potential Oregon recruits now know that Kelly is going to be around for a while longer.

It does not need to be assumed that playing for Kelly is an attractive possibility. It is.

We know that Kelly is one of the best coaches in college football, and we know that the Ducks' immediate future is secure because of the talent he's been able to bring in. Oregon has lost some good players to the draft this year (specifically LaMichael James and Darron Thomas), but it's still going to be a threat in the Pac-12 in 2012 and beyond.

These very notions are going to be very appealing to the recruits stopping by Eugene this weekend. Merely being in Eugene so close to NSD will make committing to Oregon that much more tempting.

Not trying to put words in anybody's mouth, nor am I trying to make any decisions for anybody.

I'm just pointing out that the stars have aligned in Oregon's favor.