The Oregon Ducks know that March Madness can strike at any time

The clocks have jumped forward and The Players is popping off in Ponte Vedra. We are reaching one of the best times of the year as far as the sports calendar is concerned.

As we are now squarely in the middle of its third month, that means March Madness is just around the corner. Conference tournaments are off and running and tickets to the tournament are being punched. Before you know it there will be upsets happening with hearts breaking and band members playing through the tears.

Among the teams who will be looking to celebrate in San Antonio are the Oregon Ducks. Oregon will have to make it through the Big Ten first, still a weird thing to say, but if Jackson Shelstad has anything to do it they will be a part of the final two games of the year in the Alamo City. We have yet to know the exact path for the Ducks, but whenever it is laid out they will be among the tournament’s most hunted.

Jackson was kind enough to join me for a conversation this week and noted that his team is not looking ahead due to how precarious this time of year can be.

“Every hooper loves these moments. Any team can get hot at the right time. That’s why you see a lot of smaller schools upsetting teams in the tournament. I feel like every team’s really talented in college basketball nowadays so anyone is really capable of beating anyone. But that’s why everybody loves March Madness. You see people making all of these brackets and nobody gets the bracket right because you never truly know what’s going to happen. It’s just crazy and that’s what makes it so special.”

As noted the Ducks will have to see how they fare in their new conference before anything else can be set in stone and the Big Ten is certainly no slouch. Michigan State, Maryland and Illinois will all present obvious problems to start.

But Jackson is among the country’s most exciting players and as such he has partnered with Mondelez to help fans win a chance to the 2026 NCAA® Men’s or Women’s Final Four® plus a bucket load of other prizes.  Jackson and USC’s JuJu Watkins will appear in a commercial about it all that will air starting Thursday, March 13th. Would-be players looking to win prizes can visit the Win Time Outz microsite daily to earn sweepstakes entries, and test their skills to earn chances to in one of hundreds of offers – including a trip to the 2026 NCAA Final Four.

Oregon’s football team managed to win the Big Ten title in football before getting bounced by another conference team in Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Hopefully for Jackson’s sake the basketball team has a different set of results.

Our thanks to Jackson and Mondelez for the time.