Oregon Ducks coach Dan Lanning is entering his fifth season as the coach in Eugene. He has an overall record of 48-8.

Where does Lanning rank among all coaches in college football?

Dan Lanning Ranked No. 5 on Coach List

Sporting News released their annual college football coach rankings from 1-138. Lanning is No. 5. Here are the four ahead of him.

1. Curt Cignetti, Indiana Hoosiers
2. Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs
3. Ryan Day, Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
5. Dan Lanning, Oregon Ducks

The top three coaches on this list all have won national championships in recent years: Cignetti in 2025, Smart in 2021 and 2022, and Day in 2024. It would be hard to argue that those aren’t the three best coaches in the sport at the moment.

The one coach ranked ahead of Lanning without a national title is Freeman. Freeman, like Lanning, is entering his fifth full season as head coach. Since 2022, Freeman has a record of 43-11. Very close to Lanning’s 48-8 mark.

While Notre Dame has only made the College Football Playoff one time in this span while Oregon under Lanning has made it twice, the Fighting Irish do have a deeper playoff run on their resume.

In the 2024 season, Freeman led Notre Dame all the way to the national championship game, where they lost to Ohio State.

Oregon on the other hand has made the playoff in back-to-back seasons in 2024 and 2025. In 2024, the Ducks were the No. 1 ranked team in the country. They lost their opening playoff game in the quarterfinal.

The following year, Oregon entered the playoff as the No. 5 team. They did not earn a bye this time, but won their first round and quarterfinal game to advance to the semifinal. They were eliminated in the semifinal by the eventual national champion Hoosiers.

If Lanning had a national title on his resume, it's likely he would be higher on this list than Freeman and maybe even some of the other coaches in the top three that do have national titles. What is also clear in this list is that despite not having won the ultimate game so far in his young head coaching career, Lanning is still one of the best coaches in the country.

Oregon Ducks Among Title Favorites

Oregon is expected to be right in the thick of the national title race once again in 2026.

According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Ducks have the fifth best odds to win it all at +800. Here are the teams with the best odds in the country.

Ohio State Buckeyes: +650
Notre Dame Fighting Irish +700
Indiana Hoosiers: +750
Texas Longhorns: +750
Oregon Ducks: +800

Something that stands out from this short list of title contenders is that there is a theme that keep reappearing in college football. The dominance that the SEC once had over the rest of the country is not there anymore.

For decades, the SEC was head and shoulders the best conference in college football. While top to bottom it might still overall be the best league, their top contenders aren’t and that’s been the case for the past three years.

An SEC team has not made it to the national title game, let alone won a national title, since the 2022 season. Three different Big Ten teams have won a national title in each of the past three seasons: Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana.

Will the Big Ten keep this streak going?

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