Because of the circumstances surrounding the Big Ten championship game earlier this month — No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. Indiana; both teams unbeaten; top overall seed in the College Football Playoff at stake — it was easy to overlook the conference’s third high-level team that had hovered in the upper tier of the national rankings all season: Oregon.Head coach Dan Lanning and his team entered the playoff at 11-1 overall and 8-1 in the league, with their only defeat coming against the eventual-champion Hoosiers. The Ducks had beaten everyone else on their schedule and won nine of those games by double figures. Everything about Oregon’s résumé suggested it was a legitimate national championship contender.Somehow, though, the No. 5 Ducks kicked off against No. 12 James Madison on Saturday night having largely flown under the radar in recent weeks, overshadowed by the Hoosiers, the Buckeyes and two other conference champions ahead of them in the final rankings. But the 51-34 hurting Oregon inflicted at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon offered everyone in college football a reminder of just how dangerous Lanning’s team really is, how real the Ducks’ dreams of winning a national title really are. [Best Teams in the College Football Playoff Era: Creating the Ultimate 12-team CFP]Here are my takeaways from the Oregon-James Madison CFP first-round game: 1. This version of Dante Moore can lead the Ducks to a national title EUGENE, OR: Oregon Ducks quarterback Dante Moore drops back to pass during the College Football Playoff first-round game between the Oregon Ducks and James Madison Dukes on December 20, 2025 at Autzen Stadium.(Photo by Brian Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Back in late September, when the score went final at Beaver Stadium and then-No. 6 Oregon upset then-No. 3 Penn State in double overtime, quarterback Dante Moore was in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race. He led the Ducks to five straight wins to begin the year and accounted for 14 touchdown passes and only one interception during that span — all in his first season as Oregon’s starter after spending the 2024 campaign learning behind Dillon Gabriel.But Moore’s hot start gave way to an unfortunate mid-season wobble against then-No. 7 Indiana, whose defense harassed and tormented him into a multi-interception performance that cost Oregon, the defending Big Ten champion, control of its own destiny in the conference race. Two games later, Moore only completed nine…
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2025-12-21 05:24:23
