Oregon Football: Chip Kelly Throws Down Gaunlet, and Has a Point

Chip Kelly is furious. According to him, the big national powers are happy to play Oregon—as long as they don't play them in Autzen Stadium, where they probably would be unable to hear themselves think.

He's accused the University of Tennessee of buying out their contract to play the Ducks on the road in 2013 in an effort to avoid them on the schedule. That's strange for us, bearing in mind that the VFL distinctly remembers home-and-home games against Cal and UCLA in recent memory, with the Vols going 1-1 with the Bears and 0-2 to UCLA, albeit under heartbreaking circumstances.

True, there are SEC schools who seem to avoid the call of the West Coast (unless your name's Auburn, where you played USC in 2002 and 2003), and especially since Oregon's been a threatening place to be, national powers haven't exactly come calling.

But let's be honest: Chip Kelly's not really talking a huge amount of sense about teams avoiding the Ducks. No.11 Oklahoma—with Adrian Peterson there—went there in 2006 and lost 34-33 to a controversial refereeing decision that will probably live long in the memory of Sooners fans the world over (although that wasn't in the Kelly era, but it has to be said).

Plus, Oregon hasn't exactly been a "national superpower" throughout the ages, have they? They only really came into prominence under Mike Belotti and have stayed there under Kelly. A lot of schools schedule games five to 10 years in advance.

But he does have a point: If the big-time schools really want to prove how good they are (and you know who we're talking about), they have to go and play big non-conference games. That's why Oklahoma should get extra points for visiting Florida State, as the Ducks should for playing LSU (who in turn should get bigger points for always seeming to schedule big opening games).

We wait with bated breath.

Oh, and here's the call of 2006: