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Oregon head coach Dan Lanning continued to campaign for the college football season to end on Jan. 1 every year in an effort to fix multiple issues.
Lanning noted the challenges of coordinators who take head coaching jobs being forced to juggle responsibilities and said he prefers to reduce the long layoff between games. The 39-year-old has been talking about ending the college football season sooner since the summer.
“Every playoff game should be played every single weekend until you finish the season,” Lanning said during his press conference Wednesday. “Even if it means we start Week 0 or you eliminate a bye, the season ends Jan. 1. And then the portal opens. Then coaches that have to move on to their next opportunities get to move to their next opportunities.”
Lanning reiterated throughout his news conference that he thought playing in the first round allowed his team to stay in a rhythm. Last season, Oregon was the No. 1 seed and lost in its first College Football Playoff game to Ohio State.
The NFL plays games on Saturdays throughout the month of December, which Lanning disagrees with. He would rather see Saturdays remain exclusive to college football to quicken the pace of the College Football Playoff to finish the season by Jan 1.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for the NFL, but we’re a prep league for the NFL,” Lanning said. “We do a lot of favors for the NFL. We’re the minor league in a lot of ways, but there’s no money paid from the NFL to take care of college football.
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“We’ve given up some of our days to the NFL. We said, ‘Oh, you guys get to have this day, you get to have this day, you get to have this day.’ Saturday should be sacred for college football, and every Saturday through the month of December should belong to college football.”
Oregon’s offensive and defensive coordinators are both trying to navigate their dual responsibilities. Offensive coordinator Will Stein took the Kentucky job, while defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi took the California job.
If Oregon advances beyond the quarterfinals, both coaches will be dealing with navigating the transfer portal, which opens Jan. 2, while also trying to coach the Ducks to a national championship.
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“Our national championship game this year is Jan. 19, and that’s really hard to envision as a coach that’s going out and trying to join a new program and start a staff,” Lanning said.
“It’s hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they’re going to be at and to manage that with visits, the portal, everything else that exists. The clear way to do that is to bump the season up and make sure these playoff games happen a lot faster.”
Oregon will take on Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl Jan. 1 at noon ET.
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