Dan Lanning heard all the chatter about Oregon’s path entering the College Football Playoff. However, the head coach is not interested in any excuses, even after the Ducks were blown out in the Rose Bowl.

After winning the Big Ten with a perfect 13-0 record, Oregon received the No. 1 overall seed in the initial 12-team College Football Playoff. Unfortunately, the full bracket was unkind to the Ducks as they had to face Ohio State, technically the 8-seed, in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, teams like Texas and Penn State faced Arizona State and Boise State, respectively, in games that felt like better matchups for lower-seeded teams.

There is also the issue of the long layoff. While teams were fighting for that first-round bye, the teams to receive the layoff have gone 0-3 so far in the quarterfinals. Georgia, the final team to receive a bye, will face Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

However, Lanning described any talk about the layoff impacting the start of the Rose Bowl as “an excuse” after the game.

“I thought our guys prepared well going in. Obviously, they had a better plan than us,” said Lanning. “But that’s an excuse.

“That’s an opportunity that we had to recharge. I thought our guys did practice well. I’d tell you if that wasn’t the case. I thought they had a great focus. I just don’t think our plan was good enough. I think they had a great plan to attack us. So credit to those guys.”

Later in his postgame press conference, Lanning was asked about the seeding structure of the current Playoff. Many have called for the seeding process to be re-worked after Arizona State and Boise State, teams outside the top-4 spots in the CFP rankings, earned first-round byes.

Once again, Lanning downplayed that kind of discussion as an excuse he was not willing to entertain. Instead, he said his program had an opportunity, though one it did not maximize.

“We had an opportunity. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity,” explained Lanning. “I’m not going to make excuses for our opportunity. And ultimately you have to be great teams to beat teams at the end of the year we didn’t do that. This is the road we had to travel. And they did it better than us tonight.

“No complaints for us for having that opportunity. They just took advantage of it and we didn’t.”

All things considered, Lanning probably has a gripe considering Oregon’s draw as the No. 1 seed in the entire country and the only undefeated team. However, the Ducks always seemed destined to face Ohio State in a rematch at some point, it just happened sooner rather than later.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how the decision-makers in the sport use the Oregon scenario to evaluate potential changes to the format down the road.