Dan Lanning couldn’t have been more off target with his strength of schedule shot at SEC

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning barked on Saturday night, but had no teeth to show.

As many argue that the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners should have been ahead of the No. 7 Ducks in last week’s College Football Playoff Rankings because of strength of schedule, Lanning, after Oregon beat No. 15 USC 42-27, took a shot at the SEC and its trend of scheduling nonconference cupcakes late in the season. However, even though Lanning quacked the quack, the Ducks haven't waddled the waddle all season.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning criticizes SEC's nonconference scheduling

“We just played a really good team and we beat them,” Lanning said postgame. “A lot of times, we play really good teams that become unranked all of a sudden and that’s not our fault. Maybe it is our fault, but all we’re worried about is playing the teams we play and doing the job we need to do. We did that job today, and I think that the proof is in the pudding. We played a good team and we beat them.

“All we can do next week is try and do the same thing. This conference is a really good conference. It’s competitive. We didn’t play Chattanooga State today, like some other places. We competed, so with that being said, it’s tough playing nine conference games. It’s tough playing in this league, and we got to take advantage of playing a good team today and attacking that.”

Week 13 in the SEC included Texas A&M playing Samford, Georgia playing Charlotte, Alabama playing Eastern Illinois, Auburn playing Mercer, South Carolina playing Coastal Carolina and LSU playing Western Carolina. OU was one of the few that actually played a conference game, beating No. 22 Missouri 17-6 in Norman.

One extra conference game has been the only argument the Big Ten has had over the SEC, but the SEC is changing that next year, and even with one less conference game now, it's obvious which conference members still endure the toughest slate. And Lanning knew that to be true when he was having to play such a schedule as Georgia's offensive coordinator.

This was really the one week of a three-month season that Lanning could even take the shot he did, but the timing still didn't make any sense. The Ducks were sandwiched between Ole Miss and OU in the last CFP rankings, and while most outside Eugene hear the argument of OU being ahead the Ducks despite having one more loss, Oregon likely believes it should be above Ole Miss.

But one week in November isn't all that matters.

The Ducks' win over USC was their first win this season over a team currently inside the top 25 of the CFP rankings. OU has four such wins and Ole Miss has two. And if Lanning wants to question nonconference quality, OU and Ole Miss both have a nonconference opponent still in the hunt to make the playoff. The Ducks, meanwhile, played FCS Montana State, Oklahoma State and Oregon State. The OSUs have a combined record of 3-19 and both have fired their head coaches.

Overall, the Ducks' FBS opponents have a combined record of 44-55 and .444 winning percentage. Not including Montana State in the FCS, only four of Oregon's nine opponents have a winning record with one week left in the regular season.

If Lanning is trying to boost his team to a better ranking for the CFP, he's pursuing the wrong argument. He needs to boast about how dominant his team looks against mediocre competition, because comparing schedules should only knock Oregon down a peg compared to any SEC team, including the Sooners.