If Dave Portnoy fired the first shot at the SEC’s “Cupcake City” scheduling, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning delivered the evening encore.
The No. 7-ranked Ducks notched a statement win on Saturday by defeating No. 15 USC, 42-27— an outcome Lanning believes should pay dividends in the postseason.
After the game, Lanning weighed in on the strength of the Big Ten and criticized other programs for scheduling soft, out-of-conference matchups in Week 13.
“This conference is a really good conference, it’s competitive,” Lanning said. “We didn’t play Chattanooga State today, like some other places, right? We competed. So, you know, that being said, it’s tough playing nine conference games, it’s tough playing in this league. And we got to take advantage, playing a good team today and attacking that.”
In Lanning’s eyes, Saturday’s win over a top-15 opponent underscores the type of year Oregon has had, a run that includes wins over Iowa and Penn State and only one loss to No. 2 Indiana.
Of course, Lanning also made it clear that his team’s win and schedule should be viewed more favorably by the CFP committee, considering the level of competition other top teams played on Saturday. No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia, No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 Alabama were among top-10 programs who beat unranked opponents in Week 13, winning the games by a combined margin of 203-19.
While Lanning didn’t mince words about the schedules of other CFP contenders, he also delivered a pointed message to the playoff committee when asked how Oregon should be viewed as the season winds down.
Lanning made it clear he has questions about how the Ducks are evaluated — questions he hinted might already have their answers.
“Well, we just played a really good team, we beat them. And a lot of times, we play really good teams, they become unranked all of a sudden,” Lanning said. “That’s not our fault, right? Maybe it is our fault, but all we’re worried about is playing the teams that we play and doing the job that we need to do. And we did that job today.”
Oregon will close the regular season at Washington next Saturday, a chance for the Ducks to secure a win and cement their place in the 12-team College Football Playoff race.
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