Dan Lanning’s Oregon Set for a Playoff Nightmare as B1G Championship Comes With a Major Downside

Dan Lanning had his eyes on the Big Ten championship for quite some time now and on Saturday night he got his hands on the prize. Led by Dillion Gabriel’s four touchdown passes the Ducks beat Penn State 45-37 to win the Big Ten championship and with it a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. They also secured the top seed in the first 12-team playoffs, but it could mean that their path to the elusive national championship could get difficult.

The win was their first conference title since they won the Pac-12 in 2019 and 2020, and it came in their first season of Big Ten play. Lanning’s ability to navigate challenging situations this season has been commendable. They survived a scare from Ohio in mid-October to win 32-31 and then battled frigid conditions to win at Wisconsin in November. Against Penn State on Saturday, they almost blew a 15-point lead in the final four minutes, before holding them off.

With them being the number 1 seed, their road to the national championship surprisingly gets difficult. Had Lanning’s boys lost on Saturday, they would have been the 5th seed. This would have handed them the privilege of facing the lowest-ranked conference winner, ranked at No.12 in round 1. The same applied to the quarterfinals, as they would have faced off against the second-lowest-ranked conference winner. 

But now as we know they will get a round 1 bye, and in the quarterfinals, they will be standing against whoever wins in the Ohio State vs. Tennessee game. And as we all know, no matter who wins—the Buckeyes or the Vols—Lanning’s team will have a tough road ahead compared to facing two weaker conference champions.

But Lanning knows his team won’t be easy to beat and will enter the playoffs as favorites. A few days back, he spoke about the challenge of keeping a top-ranked team focused—“It hasn’t been hard because our focus has been really clear from the beginning. We don’t really worry about the opinions of others. In fact, we call you guys ‘the machine.'” 

While the playoffs will be a bigger challenge, On3’s football analyst J.D Pickell highlighted one quality that makes them a standout heading into the knockouts.

He said, “One thing that I think is going to serve them super well in the College Football Playoff — outside of the bye, because I think they needed that to get back right, hit the reset and be able to get healthy and get dialed in. They might have one of the steadiest heart rates in this whole tournament.

From Dillon Gabriel to Dan Lanning, you saw the ebbs and flows in this one, but there was never any panic, never any sped up heart rate. They just continue to play their style of ball. They can win a shootout. They can win ugly. They can play whatever style of game you want to play, and as long as they’re able to continue to operate at that level (. . .) Oregon’s going to be a wagon.”

So despite the possible difficult road ahead, it won’t be easy to deny Lanning and his boys. Meanwhile, the win over Penn State also came with some financial rewards for the head coach and his staff.

How Ducks HC Dan Lanning reaps rewards

It’s raining riches in the Oregon hood! Lanning, along with the Ducks’ 10 full-time assistant coaches, will now make the most out of their win against Penn State. Time to reap the fruits of the seeds that they have sowed for so long, the performance bonus. Leading the program to the conference title, Lanning earned $150,000, while each of the assistant coaches earned $20,000.

Here, HC Lanning gets some extra cash of $200,000 for assuring the first-round bye in their race to the College Football Playoff. Well, this is not the end. The Ducks HC will now have the chance to double the fortune to $250,000 or $500,000 depending on their journey to the semifinals or the national championship game. So now Lanning’s 2024 season earnings can reach up to $850,000.

Along with this, he bagged a second-year contract extension through January 2031 that amounts to $8.4 million. Besides this, there is $1 million in deferred compensation. Shelling out the big bucks has proven to be a wise investment for Oregon, as Dan Lanning has delivered for the Ducks.