Rece Davis hints at budding rivalry between Ryan Day, Dan Lanning

The all-Big Ten Rose Bowl between Oregon and Ohio State wasn’t nearly as competitive as the regular-season matchup, a one-point Ducks victory, but that might have only added fuel to the fire burning between their respective head coaches.

Following the College Football Playoff national quarterfinal, which No. 6 Ohio State won handedly 41-21 in Pasadena, Calif., ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis hinted a budding rivalry is brewing between Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Ohio State’s Ryan Day during the most recent edition the College GameDay Podcast.

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“I’m not trying to start anything either, but I got a little intel during the week that those two guys (don’t like each other),” Davis said. “Not because of anything personal or anything where they have disdain personally for the other, mostly a professional rivalry-type thing like they might not be president of the other guy’s fan club. … Maybe not, but internally maybe headed that direction.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel suggested it could stem from their intense recruiting battles as each tries to put together a national championship-worthy roster, both in and out of the transfer portal.

“They run into each other a lot on the recruiting trail too,” Thamel said. “In the penthouse, it can get a little crowded, right. They’re running into each other in those high-bid NIL wars. So that makes sense. I’ve never caught that there’s outward aggression there, I just think there’s (a budding rivalry).”

Despite its less-than-encouraging ending in Pasadena, Oregon’s first season in the Big Ten was nothing short of spectacular. The Ducks (13-1) rolled through the regular season unscathed, including a 32-31 win over a second-ranked Ohio State in Eugene in mid-October, en route to claiming the 2024 Big Ten Championship with a 45-37 victory over Penn State in Indianapolis.

“I was just framing it as … I attributed it to rivalry and the fact that the last game was one-point and Oregon won the Big Ten and all of those things,” Davis added. “But you know what, it makes it good because both of those programs are going to be around for the long haul at the top of the sport for the foreseeable future.”

Following the Rose Bowl, Day and Lanning currently rank 1-2 in career winning percentage among active FBS college football head coaches, with Day at 68-10 (87.2%) and Lanning at 35-6 (85.3%).

Joel Klatt believes Oregon ‘got absolutely hosed’ with College Football Playoff format

Joel Klatt didn’t mince words regarding the hand Oregon was dealt by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee as the undefeated, top-seeded team in the nation.

The Ducks’ reward for slaying all comers throughout the regular season was playing arguably the second best team in the country, as the Ohio State Buckeyes were their opponent in the CFP quarterfinals. It certainly didn’t end well for Oregon, but Klatt believes the program deserved better from the decision-makers than their positioning in the first 12-team expanded bracket.

“This is a team that deserved better,” Klatt said, regarding Oregon and their Playoff fate, via The Joel Klatt Show. “This is a team that had the best regular season of anybody in college football. This is supposed to be a sport that we care about the regular season. We’ve been trying to maintain the importance of the regular season through all of this post-season formatting. And yet, in that effort, we lost it.

“We lost it. We lost the importance of the regular season. And because of that, the Oregon Ducks got absolutely hosed.”

Steve Samra contributed to this report.