Defending Oregon’s name, image and likeness program in the wake of recent comments from Georgia coach Kirby Smart, Ducks coach Dan Lanning said it’s an “exaggeration” that his program receives significantly more funding than other top-10 teams.

“The reality is, find a top-10 team in college football right now that doesn’t have great support,” Lanning told ESPN on Thursday. “Do we have a lot more than everybody else? I think that’d be an exaggeration or we’d never lose. Everyone else right now is focused on our ice cream cone, and if I’m busy looking at theirs, that means mine’s melting.”

Last week at SEC Media Days, Smart — whom Lanning coached under at Georgia before taking over at Oregon — jokingly said he wished he “could get some of that NIL money (Nike founder and Oregon alum Phil Knight) is giving Dan Lanning.”

Lanning said that the Ducks’ NIL program, which helped them land key transfers such as linebacker Evan Stewart and quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore, will always give them a shot to land some of the country’s best players, but they’re hardly alone.

“I’m sure there’s a correlation, right?” Lanning said, noting how defending national champion Michigan had 13 players selected in this year’s NFL draft. “Is our situation different than other teams in the nation? Absolutely. Is our team’s situation different than the premier teams in the nation? Probably not. And that’s OK. We want to be in that (group).”

While there will be an adjustment period as Oregon prepares for its first season in the Big Ten, Lanning wants to see his players be themselves.

“We don’t want to come in and be a team that follows the trends; we want to be a team that sets the trends,” Lanning told ESPN. “That just means studying yourself and how you can improve. It’ll be a learning experience.”

–Field Level Media