Oregon's Dan Lanning calls for college football season to end by Jan 1 every year

Lanning noted the challenges of coordinators who take head coaching jobs being forced to juggle responsibilities, and said he prefers to decrease the long layoff between games. The 39-year-old has been talking about ending the college football season sooner since the summer. 

Lanning reiterated throughout his press conference that he thought playing in the first round allowed his team to stay in rhythm. Last season, Oregon was the No. 1 seed and lost in their first College Football Playoff game to Ohio State.

"I've got a ton of respect for the NFL, but we're a prep league for the NFL," Lanning said. "We do a lot of favors for the NFL. We're the minor league in a lot of ways, but there's no money paid from the NFL to take care of college football.

"We've given up some of our days to the NFL. We said, 'Oh, you guys get to have this day, you get to have this day, you get to have this day.' Saturday should be sacred for college football, and every Saturday through the month of December should belong to college football."

Oregon's offensive and defensive coordinators are both trying to navigate their dual responsibilities. Offensive coordinator Will Stein took the Kentucky job, while defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi took the California job. 

If Oregon advances beyond the quarterfinasl, both coaches will be dealing with navigating the transfer portal, which opens on Jan. 2, while also trying to coach the Ducks to a national championship. 

"Our national championship game this year is Jan. 19, and that's really hard to envision as a coach that's going out and trying to join a new program and start a staff," Lanning said. 

"It's hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they're going to be at and to manage that with visits, the portal, everything else that exists. The clear way to do that is to bump the season up and make sure these playoff games happen a lot faster."