Oregon’s Dan Lanning Criticizes CFP’s Neutral Sites and Scheduling

As the remaining eight College Football Playoff teams prepare for next week’s quarterfinal matchups, Oregon coach Dan Lanning is criticizing the format and timing of the sport’s postseason bracket.

After beating No. 12 James Madison 51–34 Saturday in front of a home crowd of 55,124 fans at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, the No. 5 Ducks will travel roughly 2,700 miles to Miami for their Orange Bowl matchup on New Year’s Day against No. 4 Texas Tech, who will have not played a game in 27 days since the Big 12 championship on Dec. 6.

“I don’t know if there’s an advantage,” Lanning said Monday. “I think it’s just more of an indicator that the way we do playoffs in college football is messed up. In my opinion—we’re really excited to be going to the Orange Bowl—but this game should be played at Texas Tech, the higher-seeded team.”

This year marks the second season of first-round CFP games being played on campuses, but the quarterfinals and beyond are still played at neutral-site bowl games. Last season, Oregon won the Big Ten, was ranked No. 1, and earned a first-round bye—but lost its first playoff game to No. 8 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. 

While Lanning thinks “there should be a home field advantage” for Texas Tech and the other top four seeds, he also believes the CFP would be a better product with a different schedule. 

“That’s the other part that doesn’t make a lot of sense—is the sequence of days in between each game and each playoff [matchup],” Lanning said. “There’s just not really a rhythm.” 

Lanning proposed playing CFP games on consecutive weekends immediately after the season ends until the national championship game. This season, there were two weeks between conference championship games and the first round of the CFP, and there are 11 days between the first round and quarterfinals.

If the CFP expands to 16 games in 2026, that likely will mean four more first-round home games for the top four seeds, instead of first-round byes. But no shift away from bowl games hosting the quarterfinals matchups is guaranteed.

Texas Two-Step

Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire hasn’t complained about having to play Oregon at a neutral site, but he did say he would like to see the Group of 6 conferences have their own separate playoff, with on-campus games.

“I think it’d be great if they did the same thing that they do in the FCS where they have home games,” McGuire said. “It’d be great for TV.” 

Last week, the head of Bowl Season, Nick Carparelli, told Front Office Sports that bowl game operators would support a Group of 6 playoff—albeit at traditional neutral site bowl games.

McGuire also said Notre Dame should give up its independent status to help avoid more issues, after the Fighting Irish missed out on the CFP. “Be in a conference, and you’re in the playoffs,” he said.