Oregon's Dan Lanning Trolls SEC for Weak Schedules, Hypes Big Ten amid CFP Debate

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning took some shots at the SEC's strength of schedule and praised the Big Ten on Saturday.

"This conference is a really good conference," Lanning told reporters. "It's competitive, right? We didn't play Chattanooga State today like some other places. We competed. That being said, it's tough playing nine conference games. It's tough playing in this league. We got to take advantage of playing a good team today and attacking that."

The No. 7 Ducks improved their chances of securing a College Football Playoff spot with a 42-27 win over No. 15 USC on Saturday.

While no SEC team faced Chattanooga on Saturday, several squads near the top of the conference standings were able to emerge victorious in relatively easy matchups compared to the Ducks' defeat of the Trojans.

No. 3 Texas A&M cruised to a 48-0 win over Samford, while No. 4 Georgia wrapped up a 35-3 victory against Charlotte. No. 10 Alabama also secured a 56-0 win in its matchup with Eastern Illinois.

It's worth noting that No. 8 Oklahoma clinched a hard-fought 17-6 win over No. 22 Missouri.

Oregon's strength of schedule has also received scrutiny in the past due to a lack of quality wins, with its lone loss coming against No. 2 Indiana on Oct. 11. Saturday's victory over USC should quiet those concerns moving forward, though.

The Ducks now sit at 10-1 and can clinch a CFP spot with a win over Washington on Nov. 29, even if they aren't able to advance to the Big Ten title game.