Dan Lanning fires shot at Colorado for leaving Pac-12

Colorado’s departure from the Pac-12 back to the Big 12 once again shook up the college football space when it comes to conference realignment. However, it doesn’t sound as though Oregon’s Dan Lanning feels as though their absence will be felt very much out west.

Lanning took a shot at Colorado to end his time talking at the Duck’s own media day earlier this afternoon. Per James Crepea of The Oregonian and Brenna Greene of KOIN News in Portland, he doesn’t think the loss of the Buffaloes will matter much to the Pac-12 considering how often that they weren’t even in the league’s race.

Dan Lanning on Colorado leaving Pac-12: “Not a big reaction. I’m trying to remember what they won to affect this conference.”

— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) July 31, 2023

Full quote from Dan Lanning on his reaction to Colorado leaving the conference:

"Not a big reaction. I'm trying to remember what they won to affect this conference and I don't remember. Do you remember them winning anything? I don't remember them winning anything." https://t.co/Kdtf9xgayo pic.twitter.com/XETU03B0Cj

— Brenna Greene (@BrennaGreene_) July 31, 2023

That’s one heck of a shot fired by Oregon’s head coach.

Still, there’s at least some shred of truth within what he said. Colorado arrived in the Pac-12 back in 2011. Over their 12 seasons in the league, they’ve posted a winning record, overall and in conference play, just twice. On top of that, one of those was the pandemic season in 2020 where they played just six games in total.

Overall, besides those two seasons, Colorado finished in the bottom three of the Pac-12 standings. In four years, so a quarter of their time in the conference, the Buffaloes were dead last or tied for last in the standings.

Even so, again, this is quite an inflammatory statement from Lanning in regard to the Buffaloes. That’s why, if you didn’t have it circled already, you should plan on catching Deion Sanders’ trip up to Eugene on September 23rd considering it just got a whole more interesting thanks to these comments.

Paul Finebaum addresses Oregon, Washington’s place in future realignment

Oregon and Washington have interesting places in the future of college football realignment, but Paul Finebaum doesn’t see those schools going to the Big Ten.

The Big Ten already acquired USC and UCLA and Colorado is leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12. So could the Big 12 acquire a nice West Coast footprint?

Don’t count on it, as Finebaum alluded to on McElroy and Cubelic.

“It seems like a stretch Greg and let me go back to the bigger kind of question for a second,” Finebaum said in regards to Big 12 interest for Washington and Oregon. “I do not believe the Big Ten will look toward Oregon and Washington. And I don’t believe they’ll do it for this reason: I think the Big Ten sees better opportunities elsewhere.”