Oregon Duck’s head coach Dan Lanning shared his thoughts on the current college football scheduling format at Big Ten media day Wednesday.
Lanning’s position is sparked by the Ducks’ 41-21 loss to Ohio State in the 2025 College Football Playoff Rose Bowl. The head coach was critical of the 25-day bye the top-seeded Oregon received for their undefeated regular season, saying teams shouldn’t have to go into big games without momentum.
“You’d love the rust to be knocked off when you step on the field,” he said.”It's almost a month (off). That's a long time."
He has a point. Oregon wasn’t the only team on a bye week to lose their first playoff game. All four of the top seeds received a week off, and lost their quarterfinal matchups, so it’s unlikely Lanning is alone in his thinking.
He also argued for a playoff system similar to professional sports, saying Week 0 should be the universal starting week for all college football teams. In addition, he wants to see the season slightly more condensed, with fewer off weeks allowing the offseason to begin earlier.
“I wish we played every single Saturday in college football,” he said. The long break is something I'm not crazy about…I wish college football ended Jan. 1."
With the debut of an expanded 12-team playoff in 2024, the season didn’t wrap up until Jan. 20.
It’s an ambitious thought to streamline the season to allow for more routine. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petetti says it could be “tricky” to pull off.
"It requires a lot of combining and compressing the regular season," Petitti said to ESPN. "It's tricky to try and get everything done as early as you want. Is it physically possible? Yes, but it requires real compression in how you play. I think it's partly in trying to wrap the season off so you can get some of the tough portal decisions that we're facing about where that goes, and you can just complete your season and then get on to building a team for next season."