Can Oregon Win The Big Ten?

Or is it Ryan's day?

We already know that Dan Lanning owns the west coast on the recruiting trail.

He went out and snagged five-star caliber transfers like Dante Moore from UCLA and Jabbar Muhammad from the gutted Huskies.

And he continues to make USC look like UC Santa Cruz when it comes to California high schoolers.

Somebody help me out here, why aren’t California kids picking USC?

In his third year, Dan Lanning is once again at the top of the Pac in the transfer portal and recruiting ranks.

But it’s too bad he’s not in the Pac anymore.

And still, the way-too-early pundits are marking Oregon to be a day-one contender for the Big Ten title.

How could that be?

Let’s start with looking at Michigan.

They lost Jim Harbaugh and are graduating most of their veteran roster (and also lost out to Dan in the race for five-star receiver Gatlin Bair just this past weekend).

Washington is in rebuild mode, USC is still deciding if they ever want to play defense again, and most of the fly over state teams don’t really conjure up much fear at the moment.

So at least on paper, it’s almost as if Martin Heemeyer drove his Killdozer straight through the conference and cleared the way for the Ducks to take the crown in their inaugural season, right?

“Not so fast my friend!”

The 2024 schedule is obviously packed. We’re playing the defending national champs AND the defending runners-up, but we better keep our eyes on the scarlet and gray oil train barreling directly towards us.

Because much like McCain and Romney, none of this hype will matter much if we can’t capture the state of Ohio.

Ohio State might have been underwhelming by their standards for the last few seasons, but I am unhappy to report that they have still been recruiting their butts off and might have finally remembered that they are perpetual national title contenders.

Ohio currently has the top recruiting class in the Big Ten for 2024—and the third-ranked class nationally.

The Buckeye’s also made out like bandits in the portal, snagging Ole Miss RB Quinshon Judkins, Kansas State QB Will Howard, and a handful of Alabama stars including CB Caleb Downs, OL Seth McLaughlin, and five-star freshman QB Julian Sayin.

Oh, and did I mention they already have the two top cornerbacks in the 2025 class, too?

Ryan Day’s father returned to the NFL to save Justin Herbert’s life, and so now the jet-black-bearded wunderkind has decided that he can safely return to his rightful place on third base.

It’s clear that our new OSU is going to be a different beast compared to our old OSU.

Look, I’m not breaking any new ground when I say that Ohio will be the best team on Oregon’s schedule in 2024. Im just saying it might be easy to forget about them among our escalating Husky beef and Wolverine title hype.

But the Ducks themselves are recruiting at a historic level—just one spot behind the Buckeyes in the national rankings—and it’s clear that Dan & Co. have no problem leaning directly into a challenge.

For the last seven years, the entire Big Ten regular season has been essentially meaningless. Everyone just waited for Ohio and Michigan to play each other.

And in order for Oregon to win the conference, they have to make sure that this year’s one-game-season is played on October 12th in Autzen.

Sure, we’ll have to finally beat some teams we never beat, like Washington and Boise State.

And yeah, traveling to Ann Arbor will be daunting.

But assuming we don’t get too tripped up, Ohio is our swing state, and Dan will have to channel his inner Mario Cristobal (the good parts) to beat the Buckeyes and win his first conference title.

Go Ducks.