The college football season ended Jan. 19 with Indiana‘s victory against Miami in the College Football Playoff championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.
As expected, the Hoosiers and the Hurricanes followed with a unanimous 1-2 finish, respectively, among the 62 voters in the final US LBM Coaches Poll released Tuesday morning.
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That was where the agreement among coaches ended, however, as not even CFP semifinalists Oregon and Ole Miss finished in the top four across all ballots.
The Rebels, who lost to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, were No. 3 in the final poll, and the Ducks, who lost to Indiana in the Peach Bowl, came in at No. 4.
Oregon received 33 fourth-place votes, 11 third-place votes, 10 fifth-place votes and eight coaches had the Ducks ranked sixth.
Here’s a look at the final rankings submitted by Oregon coach Dan Lanning.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s final poll rankings
James Madison Dukes head coach Bob Chesney and Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning greet one another after the game at Autzen Stadium.
What is unique about Dan Lanning’s final rankings?
The Oregon coach favored teams from his own conference.
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Besides the Ducks and Hoosiers, Lanning ranked six other teams from the Big Ten, and he had all but one ranked higher than their final landing spot.
Lanning had No. 6 Ohio State at No. 5, No. 17 Iowa at No. 15, No. 22 Michigan at No. 17, No. 25 Illinois at No. 18 and he had unranked Washington at No. 19. The one team from the Big Ten he ranked lower was Southern California. Lanning had the Trojans No. 24 and they finished No. 21.
Along with the Huskies, Lanning had two other teams on his ballot that didn’t end up in the top 25 — SMU at No. 16 and Louisville at No. 21. The three teams that finished in the top 25 that Lanning didn’t include were No. 19 Houston, No. 23 Navy and No. 24 Georgia Tech.
The biggest outlier on Lanning’s ballot was Vanderbilt. He had the No. 15 Commodores as his last team in at No. 25. That was the lowest ranking on any ballot for Vanderbilt, which received more than half of its votes in the No. 15-17 range with a high of No. 11 from UConn coach Jim Mora. After Lanning, the next four lowest votes came in at No. 20.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning watches from the sideline Jan. 1 as the Ducks take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Orange Bowl.
How did the coaches vote for Oregon football?
The Ducks received all of their votes between No. 3 and No. 6, with 33 votes coming in at No. 4.
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Other than Lanning, there were nine current, former and future Big Ten coaches who participated in the poll.
Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Washington’s Jedd Fisch had Oregon at No. 3, while Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell and former Penn State coach James Franklin had the Ducks at No. 5.
Northwestern’s David Braun, Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Maryland’s Mike Locksley, Nebraska’s Matt Ruhle and former James Madison coach Bob Chesney, who is now at UCLA, all had Oregon fourth.
The eight coaches who ranked the Ducks at No. 6 were UConn’s Mora, Buffalo’s Pete Lembo, Houston’s Will Fritz, Florida International’s Willie Simmons, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee, South Florida’s Alex Golesh, Toledo’s Jason Candle and Wyoming’s Jay Sawvel.
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Chris Hansen covers University of Oregon football, men’s basketball, track and field, cross country and softball for The Register-Guard. You can reach him at chansen@registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: How did Oregon football’s Dan Lanning vote in final coaches poll?
