Oregon Ducks' lone 2026 losses come to national champion once again

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The Oregon Ducks have come close in recent years to claiming the program's first national title. Since Dan Lanning's hiring in 2022, they narrowly missed out on making the four-team College Football Playoff in 2023 and were the No. 1 and No. 5 seeds in the 12-team CFP in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

But what has stood in front of Lanning and the Ducks in each of those years has been either the national champion winner or a team that appeared in the title game.

With the Indiana Hoosiers taking down the Miami Hurricanes on Monday night, Oregon has been eliminated in the CFP in blowout fashion by the last two national champions, as the Ohio State Buckeyes trounced the Ducks in the Rose Bowl in 2024, while the Hoosiers did the same in the Peach Bowl on New Year's Day.

In Dan Lanning's career at Oregon, he is 48-8 overall through four seasons. Up to this point, six of those eight losses have come to teams that either made it to the national championship game or won the national championship outright. Four of his eight losses have come to the champion.

Back in 2023, the Bo Nix-led Ducks lost to the rival Washington Huskies in mid-October before having a chance at redemption in the PAC-12 championship. But coming away with the conference championship in the last year of the PAC-12's existance wasn't the only thing on the line.

With the Huskies ranked No. 3 and the Ducks ranked No. 5, the winner would earn a spot in the four-team CFP. Unfortunately for Oregon, they lost to Washington for a second time — again, a heartbreaking loss by three points.

A look back to the 2022 season presents a similar story, with the Ducks suffering a loss to the national championship winner, though they did lose two other games that season that ended in a one-point Holiday Bowl victory.

Lanning's first game as the Ducks' head man came against the program that he was hired away from as the defensive coordinator: the Georgia Bulldogs. Taking place in the Chick-fil-A at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA, the contest was technically considered to be a neutral site — but considering the close proximity of Atlanta to Athens, it was neutral in name only.

The Bulldogs dismantled the Ducks, 49-3, in Lanning's Oregon coaching debut. They went on to go 15-0, culminating in a 65-7 victory over TCU in the national title game.

With that included, plus Indiana on Monday, four of Lanning's eight losses at Oregon have come to the national title winner. Six of his eight losses have come to the team that appeared in the national title game. Take away the 2022 season that included losses to No. 25 Washington and No. 21 Oregon State, and the Ducks have watched each team that they've lost to play for the national championship over the course of the last three years.

It's entirely true that Lanning has constructed one of the top programs in the country, a massive task considering he's only been in Eugene for four years.

But it's also true that, for whatever reason, the Ducks haven't been able to get over the hump — whether it be looking at it from a short-term perspective, with two blowout losses in back-to-back years in the CFP, or the long-term perspective of losing six of eight games in the past four years to teams that competed for the title.

This is the crossroads that many programs face on their way to way to becoming national champions.

Take Ohio State, for example.

Before winning it all in 2024, the Buckeyes lost in the CFP Semifinal to the Bulldogs in 2022. Then, in 2023, they were ranked No. 2 before losing to the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines in the final game of the regular season. The loss ultimately bounced Ohio State out of the four-team playoff, while the Wolverines went on to win the title, as did Georgia the year before.

Going by that barometer, considering Oregon has also lost to the last two national champions, the Ducks will win it in 2026.

But as is clear in the sport of college football, nothing is ever as easy as it sounds. With Dante Moore, Evan Stewart, the entire starting defensive line, and a number of other key contributors back for next season, plus several talented, accomplished transfers, next year is shaping up to be the year.

The year the Ducks break the streak of losing to the eventual national champion. The year they get over the hump and win it all themselves.

Only time will tell if that comes true.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon Ducks eliminated by national champion for 2nd straight season

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