In an interview with John Canzano of "The Bald-Faced Truth" radio show, Dan Lanning excoriated the Big Ten for its scheduling practices, which have the Oregon Ducks traveling more than any team in the conference while playing seven opponents coming off extra rest, including No. 3 Penn State this Saturday night in Happy Valley, 4:30 p.m. PT on NBC.
"We're traveling 15,000 miles this year, and we play seven teams that have more prep time than we do," Lanning said to John Canzano. "That's unique, isn't it? It's almost like they didn't want us in the Big Ten, or something, right? We snuck our way in, didn't we?"
The actual figure is 16,770 miles, third-most in college football, and it includes road trips to Penn State, Rutgers, Iowa and Washington. The Ducks faced a 9:30 a.m. road game at Northwestern. In November, they'll play Iowa in Kinnick Stadium on a Saturday, possibly a night game, followed by a home game versus Minnesota on the following Friday night, a six-day turnaround.
The Gophers have 13 days to prepare and their previous game is at home against Michigan State. It's absolute schedule sabotage by the conference.
The move to the Big Ten gave the program added prestige, improved national recognition and an expanded recruiting footprint as well as an improved revenue forecast, but it also carries this built-in scheduling disadvantage, a tough ask for student-athletes, particularly in nonrevenue sports.
Oregon is a deep, talented and focused football team and the only way to respond to this scheduling bull junk is to shove it right back in the throats of the powers-that-be. "The warriors control the environment," Lanning said this week.
The intention within the program, to borrow a phrase from the Marine Corps, is to embrace the suck. The Ducks will play early and play late. In hostile environments they'll play teams coming off extra time. They'll lace up their custom Nike Shoes and kick ass.
Oregon's two byes this year come before games versus Indiana on October 11 and at Washington on November 29, and both those opponents are also coming off a bye. It's set up for the Ducks to get everyone's best shot.
Day-to-day in the Hatfield-Dowlin Center, they wouldn't want it any other way.