Twenty-five days, two hours, 13 minutes.
The clock ticks away on goducks.com, the official Web site for Oregon athletics, toward the kickoff of the Ducks’ 2001 football season. As that clock indicates, the anticipation for Oregon football is growing by the second.
Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti and the rest of the Ducks are among those pumped for the season.
“We’re very excited, obviously,” Bellotti said. “The preseason prediction (No. 1 in the Pacific-10 Conference media poll) I hope definitely comes true. Our players certainly understand that we have to go out and earn that every week.”
Judging by ticket sales, the fans are just as fired up as Bellotti.
Well, only 25 days, two hours and 12 minutes now.

Ducks high in preseason rankings
Not only were the Ducks picked first in the conference by the Pac-10 media, as Bellotti alluded to, but the nation’s coaches also gave Oregon a high place in their preseason poll.
Oregon was the highest-ranked Pac-10 school in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll released last week. The Ducks were ranked eighth but also garnered a first-place vote. Oregon State was the second-highest ranked Pac-10 school at 12th, while Washington was 14th and UCLA 15th.
Oregon is the only top-10 team to play another top-25 team in its season opener. The Ducks will take on No. 23 Wisconsin Sept. 1 at Autzen Stadium.

Tickets … or hot cakes?
While regular tickets are selling out fast for Oregon’s six home games, students who want to attend the Wisconsin game face an unusual prospect: They might have to stay in Eugene for a few extra days in order to score the hot items.
Free student tickets will be available to students Monday, Aug. 20, three days after final exams for the summer term. As usual, any tickets not picked up by the following Monday may be sold to the general public at the discretion of the Athletic Department.
“We feel like it’s a good compromise,” Director of Media Services Dave Williford said.
Meanwhile, general-admission seats remained for only two games as of Aug. 1. The game with the most available tickets was Utah on Sept. 8, with about 2,300 seats and standing-room tickets available.

Harrington v. Simonton for the state
All eyes are on the state of Oregon, and if things play out, the battle for the Pac-10 title may not be as exciting as the battle between Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington and Oregon State running back Ken Simonton in the race for the Heisman Trophy.
Both players are feeling the heat of the spotlight already.
“I don’t think it’s possible to have more pressure than the pressure I place on myself,”Harrington said.
“My main focus is us and the team, but it’s good to be in contention for a piece of the pie,” Simonton said.
The Civil War, in a way, has begun already.