Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic’s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox.Sup. College football starts this week. Time to wrap up this newsletter’s final sprint through conferences by talking about the Big Ten’s most interesting team, IMO.Previews: A quarter-century of inching closerTo appear in the top five of the preseason AP Top 25 usually means being considered a serious contender. Since 2000, Oregon has done it six times: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2024 and as this year’s No. 2, behind Ohio State.Six doesn’t exactly match those Buckeyes, whose lowest preseason ranking of the last 14 years was 2016’s No. 6, but almost nobody ever does. It also can’t quite compare to recent Alabama, Clemson or Georgia runs, plus you can usually pencil Oklahoma into any August’s top five.Still, even counting that exclusive tier, the Ducks have been one of college football’s most consistently hyped teams of this millennium. And for good reason!That began after 2001, when the BCS snubbed Joey Harrington’s Pac-10 champs, who probably would’ve been only a touchdown underdog against a nostalgia-inflated Miami. (The Canes blew out Nebraska, a team that ended up with a transitive loss to Oregon.) The Ducks finished No. 2, and 2001 became both a reason to trust them … and the first of their many missed opportunities.To be clear, I understand you probably view preseason rankings as dens of lies and deceit. However, Oregon has more than backed up its hype. Since 2000, the Ducks have eight finishes in the AP top five, including title-game losses in 2010 and 2014, another No. 2 finish in 2012, a 13-0 start in 2024 and last year’s final No. 4. Add in 2007, when a Dennis Dixon injury ruined a mid-November No. 2.But, as Oregon fans are sick of hearing, their team has zero No. 1 endings. Ever.So for two decades, the Ducks have been the centerpiece of this question: Who’ll be the next FBS team to win its first-ever title? (Last season brought a jarring punchline. We’ll get to that.)