Sadly, college football programs and their worth no longer solely depend on their talents. It’s the media that assigns their worth. Now how would you have felt being the top program and still not getting due respect? That’s the exact feeling the Oregon Ducks and Dan Lanning might be feeling right now. That’s because Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes might have cast some magical spell on the media.

So much so that they are all about Day and the Buckeyes. Even after putting in some best feats this season, Lanning hardly finds his or Oregon’s name in the media discussions. That’s when college football analysts thought enough is enough. The duo is pretty sure that this disrespect is going to come off as a boomerang for whoever refused to give Lanning & Co. their due credit. 

Analysts call out disrespect for No.1 Oregon

To whoever landed Lanning and the Ducks in the backseat, here is a heads-up. The Ducks are the only undefeated team in the country. The No.1 Oregon has a top 15 defense along with the Big Ten’s top two players in sacks on a per-game basis. Yet then, the conference’s coaches refused to select any of Oregon’s defenders as first-team all-Big Ten honorees.

Now that goes to the conference’s decision. But even from the media, they’ve got enough disrespect. Before the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, analysts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz tried to open the eyes of the media personnel, whoever insulted Lanning and the Ducks. As Fitz started with, “We sit here and we talk about Ohio State. Ohio State. Ohio State. It’s what we’re all doing.”

Well, that’s about how the media spotlight is entirely on Day and the Buckeyes. The famous Kirk Hebstreit taking a stand for teh Buckeyes HC that landed him in a controversy and verbal scuffle with Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith. Without taking anybody’s side, the analyst came up with a wake-up call, “Did I miss something? Like Oregon’s No.1 team in the country in a wild chaotic year in college football. The only thing we could count on is Oregon was going to find a way to win every game.” Why wouldn’t they? After all, they have their X-factor Dillon Gabriel, the well-experienced pocket passer with more than functional mobility.

This is what fueled Fitz’s frustration, as he stated, “I don’t remember the last time we had a number one team in the country that was getting this little respect from the world.” 

So what’s going Lanning going to do? “Going to come out with the Thunder of the Gods because nobody’s talking about them,” Fitz raised an alarm. Now that they are chasing a college football history, Lanning’s hunger got 100x more. 

Dan Lanning on the brink of creating a 130-year-old history 

The Rose Bowl matchup in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day is indeed going to be special for the Ducks. After all, Oregon is chasing a 130-year-old record on top of winning their program’s first national championship. As history says, the last time an FBS college football program got lucky to hold a perfect 16-0 overall record was the Yale Bulldogs in 1984. However, in the case of the FCS program, we have a recent example.

That’s none other than the North Dakota State Bison, who won an FCS title with an undefeated 16-0 streak in 2019. Till now, we have four FBS teams that have bagged the national championship with a record of 15-0. The 2023 winners Michigan Wolverines, Georgia Bulldogs in 2022, LSU Tigers in 2019, and Clemson Tigers in 2018. Now Oregon is all set to leave their mark. So no amount of disrespect or media snub can distract Lanning from his goal. 

Instead, Dan Lanning shares how he finds it to be a privilege to face off against Ryan Day’s program. “Ohio State’s great team, and the path to the end is tough, which is, you know, exciting for our team, and certainly for me,” the Oregon HC sounded all confident. That’s how they are treating the historic Rose Bowl with a do-or-die mindset.