No. 1 and not done: Oregon Ducks set sights on historic College Football Playoff run after blitzing Big Ten

INDIANAPOLIS — The season basically began for Oregon here in Indy five months ago. The school kicked things off by inflating a 1,600-pound Duck (capital D) that floated ominously on the White River during Big Ten media days in July. 

The obvious message from the new birds on the block: Game on, Big Ten.

Its latest game ended Saturday night with a much more significant and ominous message for the entire country. These Ducks are built for more than floating. They can fly, too. Conference champs, swamping Penn State 45-37. New conference? No problem. 

Now comes the hard part: Not only winning the waterway and the league, but winning it all.

With the victory, Oregon will go down as the first No. 1 seed of the expanded playoff era. Based on recent history, that and five bucks will get you a Panera gift card.

The No. 1 seed in the old four-team format won exactly four championships in 10 years. (For what it’s worth, all four have come in the last five seasons.) You can imagine how tough it will be in a 12-team field playing three more games over a month’s time.

Still, there is something to be said for surveying the landscape from the mountaintop at this point. And the rarified air Oregon occupies is thus: It is the betting favorite to be the first first-time national champion since Florida in 1996. 

In a season of parity, Oregon was the best of the best. It won a shootout Saturday with the offensively challenged Nittany Lions, but who cares how it looked? Georgia had to survive two straight overtime games to make the field. Only three other teams in the discussion have even one loss — Notre Dame, Indiana and Boise State.

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SMU had its heart broken against Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, but its effort might be enough to nudge Alabama out of the field.

While there was discourse and upheaval and social media outcry below them, the Ducks kept quacking.

Seven of their wins came by three touchdowns. Their biggest game, aside from Saturday night, came in a one-point thriller against Ohio State on Oct. 12.

A week later, the Ducks ascended to No. 1 and have been there since.

Now what? The Ducks receive a first-round bye and play a quarterfinal game Jan. 1, most likely in the Rose Bowl. Nothing new there. Oregon and Marcus Mariota blew out Florida State in the Rose in the first-ever CFP almost 10 years ago. This will be the Ducks’ ninth trip to Pasadena for the postseason.

But starting Sunday in Grapevine, Texas, No. 1 is just a number. The games are the thing, not a Tuesday night conference call. Undefeated means little. Oregon can’t afford a loss, just like everyone else.

But someone has to be the favorite. Ohio State was supposed to be here but turtled against Michigan. It’s four years and counting since the Buckeyes won the Big Ten. Penn State’s effort Saturday was laudable, but James Franklin is now 1-14 against top-five teams.

Heck, Penn State most likely would have been the No. 1 seed had it survived the Ducks.

“We are the best team in the country,” Oregon receiver Tez Johnson proclaimed amid the confetti at Lucas Oil Field.

It was that kind of year. Alabama lost three times and still entered Saturady with a playoff conference. Arizona State went from worst to first in the Big 12. Clemson backdoored into the ACC Championship Game and won the dang thing. One of the original BCS busters, Boise State, is playing for a national championship for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Ducks won a 130-year-old conference in their first season.

“We expected this,” tight end Terrance Ferguson told reporters. “We had goals of being in this championship game.”

Literally while that Duck was floating in the river last summer, Ferguson’s family was visiting here and had the idea to rent a house, assuming Oregon would be back.

“I told my family I was coming back to win a championship. We had the team to do it,” Ferguson told CBS Sports. “I booked it for them. I told them, ‘We’re going to be here anyway for media days. I want to be back.'”

That’s confidence without planting a flag at midfield.

The Ducks changed conferences. They didn’t change philosophies. Coach Dan Lanning has built a program that dominated the Big Ten and could clearly win the SEC. The coach also built a reputation as the No. 1 motivational speaker in the game and a sterling recruiter. 

For the third time in the last six years – over the course of two coaches – the Ducks won their league. Five times in that span, Oregon has played for the conference title.

Lanning has been known for taking risks. Those failed risks were arguably the difference in the Ducks missing last year’s CFP. They lost twice to Washington — including by three in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

The Huskies lost their coach (Kalen DeBoer) and declined. The Ducks retooled and didn’t blink. They won the first league championship game between two top-three teams in 12 years. It was the first ever outside the SEC to win such a game.

He not only embraced the portal; Lanning ruled it. Johnson came from Troy. Johnson caught 11 passes for a career-high 181 yards Saturday to become the game’s offensive MVP. Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad came from Washington. Gabriel came from UCF and Oklahoma. An invite to New York for the Heisman ceremony should arrive shortly after Gabriel threw a season-high four touchdowns.

“Yeah, once,” Gabriel said when asked if he had ever been to New York. “You want to make it twice?”

Defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei became the most famous Uiagalelei in his family this season in posting an All-America-worthy season. He was one of three first-team All-Big Ten Ducks. (Gabriel and offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. were the others.)

You should understand how difficult it was to go undefeated this season. Every team in the SEC had at least one loss by Halloween. Everyone in the Big 12 had at least two losses.

Alabama lost most visibly to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Ohio State is likely to host a first-round playoff game, but the season feels like a failure to some after another Michigan loss.

Four Big Ten teams have started 12-0 – ever. The last was 22 years ago (Ohio State). Aside from that, you have to go back to 1902 (Chicago) and 1904 (Minnesota).

Oregon got to 13-0 by being as invested as anyone. Perhaps more so. They were just quieter about it. Oregon patron saint/benefactor Phil Knight, 86, is all in on getting the Ducks to the promised land before, well, before any more time passes. 

Oregon is this season’s last team with a zero attached to its record. Will it stay that way? For the first time, major college football enters a multi-bracket progressive playoff where it’s win or go home.

Where does Oregon go from here?

“It’s the new day and age,” Gabriel said. “I guess we’ll figure it out.”