Dan Lanning makes plea to fans after state legislation creates unique precedent

There is a new piece of legislation in the Oregon House that could have a big impact on Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks. The bill, House Bill 2472, would make coaches responsible for things said by fans during games.

If passed and signed into law, that means a coach like Lanning could be suspended for a week due to the actions of one out of 50,000 fans. On top of that, schools would have to maintain a “transparent complaint process.”

While speaking to the media at spring practice, Lanning was asked about this new legislation. However, it didn’t seem like he was interested in worrying too much about that right now.

“I’ll just tell them to be behaved, I guess,” Dan Lanning said. “You guys can help me out there. Control what you can control, right?”

The bill doesn’t note if the one week suspension would be with or without pay. However, if it is without pay, Lanning would lose more than $90,000 for that suspension. His contract also states that he must comply with “regulations relating to the conduct and administration of the football program.”

Of course, it isn’t just Oregon that is affected by this potential bill. Schools like Oregon State would be too. Scott Barnes, the Beavers athletic director, said that the bill has “elements that are unnecessary or impractical.”

This bill likely stems from an incident that happened at Autzen Stadium during the 2022 stadium. During a game against BYU, some fans chanted offensive statements about Mormons.

Dan Lanning quickly responded, saying, “Like many of you, really frustrated and disgusted to hear some of the things that were said during the game. Got the opportunity to reach out to Coach Kalani [Sitake]. Our athletic director, Rob [Mullens], got to reach out to their AD Tom [Holmoe] there at BYU and expressed our frustration and also apologized for the behavior of a few that really puts a cloud over a great group. And a really fun situation for our players and our fans on Saturday. That being said, there’s no room for that in our stadium. Anybody that is going to partake in that doesn’t need to be in our stadium. That’s been addressed.”

The university itself even followed up with its own apology for the event. Still, there are representatives in the legislation who want to go further to prevent future events like this from happening.

There will be a work session for HB 2472 on March 28th at 3:00 p.m.