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Dan Lanning has Oregon sitting at 12-0 ahead of the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday. If the Ducks beat Penn State in the title game, they’ll earn the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff. If they lose, they’re still going to be in the field.
Oregon has little reason to be concerned with the weekly CFP rankings. It was No. 1 in every set of rankings the selection committee produced this season.
It got to avoid the exercise altogether.
Others have had to deal with the week-to-week drama. And that drama has only really produced bickering. South Carolina feels it deserves to be in the field. Ole Miss feels it deserves to be in the field. The ACC feels like it deserves more teams in the field. The Big 12 feels like it deserves more teams in the field.
Lanning’s message to those who are complaining?
“They can’t deny you if you just win,” he said recently.
Lanning joined longtime Oregon columnist John Canzano on his radio show this week and, at one point, riffed with Canzano about the entire CFP selection process.
“I’ve never watched (the rankings reveal),” Lanning told Canzano. “That’s on Tuesdays anyway, isn’t it? Aren’t we working on Tuesdays?”
And when Canzano said ESPN personalities are “SEC honks,” Lanning went one further.
“They pay the bills, right? Doesn’t the SEC pay their bills? I mean, who’s the contract with? Isn’t that ESPN’s contract? That’s how it works. Let’s not pretend it doesn’t work different than that,” Lanning said. “But, you know, there’s a secret to all of that. Just win.
“Just win. They can’t deny you if you just win. You can’t complain if you just win. If you lose 3 games, shame on you. If you lose 2, shame on you. Win.”
Miami (10-2), Ole Miss (9-3), and South Carolina (9-3) will be the first teams out of the CFP field if everything holds from this Tuesday’s ranking.
Miami started 9-0 but ended with losses in 2 of its final 3 games to miss out on the ACC title game. As it stands, the Hurricanes don’t have a win over a team currently ranked in the CFP Top 25.
Ole Miss lost to Kentucky (4-8) at home earlier this season and followed up its massive win over Georgia by losing to Florida. The Rebels arguably have the best win of any of the bubble teams in the SEC, but they also have the worst loss.
And then there’s South Carolina, which has won 6 straight games but lost 3 of 4 against LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama earlier this season. South Carolina has 2 wins over teams that are currently ranked in the CFP Top 25.
Related reading: Is this the worst College Football Playoff selection committee of all time?
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
