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QuickTake:
With eight straight games after a bye, road trips to Columbus and L.A. and a home date with Michigan, the Ducks have their work cut out for them in 2026.
The map back to the College Football Playoff has been laid out for the Oregon Ducks.
The Big Ten released its official schedule on Tuesday, featuring a beefy Oregon conference slate that begins on the road at USC on Sept. 26, is followed by a bye, and then closes with eight straight weeks of games to end the season.
First, a full look at the schedule:
Non-Conference
Sept. 5: Boise State
Sept. 12: at Oklahoma State
Sept. 19: Portland State
Start of Big Ten play
Sept. 26: at USC
Oct. 3: bye week
Oct. 10: UCLA
Oct. 17: Nebraska
Oct. 24: at Illinois
Oct. 31: Northwestern
Nov. 7: at Ohio State
Nov. 14: Michigan
Nov. 21: at Michigan State
Nov. 28: Washington
And now, some thoughts.
1. The eight straight weeks of games jumps out first. The Ducks have just one bye week in 2026 and are staring at a grueling final two months that includes nearly all of their toughest opponents, save USC. Oregon had a pair of byes in 2025 — after Penn State and before Iowa.
2. Still, the football gods have finally looked gracefully upon the Ducks: The upcoming slate doesn’t feature a matchup with Big Ten big dog … Indiana?
Yes, Indiana. That’s still weird to write. But even though Curt Cignetti’s national champions will lose a fair amount from this year’s roster, Indiana, as a program, is for real, folks.
And seeing as Oregon’s only two losses in 2025 came to the Hoosiers, it should be smooth sailing to the conference championship game.
Right?
Oh yeah — Ohio State. That other Big Ten team.
The Ducks will travel to Columbus to face the blue-blooded Buckeyes on Nov. 7, marking Oregon’s first trip to the Horseshoe since Mario Cristobal’s Ducks upset OSU 35-28 in 2021 nonconference action.
The Ducks are 1-0 in conference play against the Buckeyes since joining the Big Ten after 2024’s Autzen triumph. But then, of course, there’s that Rose Bowl that followed.
In 2026, the Buckeyes return receiver Jeremiah Smith, quarterback Julian Sayin, and are a trendy No. 1 pick in the way-too-early top 25s.
Start looking at hotels now.
3. The home schedule isn’t a cakewalk, but considering Autzen hosted the eventual national champions in both 2024 and 2025, 2026 feels like a bit of a snoozer.
Nebraska, UCLA and Washington combined for 14 Big Ten losses in 2025. And while Michigan is Michigan, the Wolverines have lost nine games in the two seasons since their national championship and are coming off a tumultuous offseason that saw the firing — and subsequent arrest — of head coach Sherrone Moore.
Michigan replaced Moore with longtime Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, though. And he’s won a late-season game or two against the Ducks in his career.
4. Oregon’s schedule features the last opponent it had yet to face since joining the Big Ten: Nebraska.
It’s not the first meeting between the two, though. In 2016, the Cornhuskers knocked off the Ducks in Lincoln in a game that featured one of the biggest “what ifs” in Oregon history. Because if Mark Helfrich elects to kick a handful of extra points instead of continually going for two and failing, Willie Taggart might not have been the one on the Autzen sideline coaching the Ducks to a 42-35 win over Nebraska a year later.
5. It’s Year 3 of Oregon and Washington playing after Thanksgiving, and while that still doesn’t feel right, this year’s game should be a treat.
On one hand, the Huskies could be good. After going 9-4 in Jedd Fisch’s second year as coach, Washington returns one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Demond Williams Jr.
On the other, that very same quarterback announced he was staying at Washington, announced he was leaving Washington, and then again announced he was staying at Washington — all within the span of a few days earlier this month.
What could go wrong for the Huskies in a year that began with this since deleted comment from the head coach’s wife before Williams re-re-committed?
6. Oregon’s longest trip is the 2,437-mile trek to Columbus.
7. Oregon’s shortest trip is the 870-mile jaunt to the USC Coliseum. The Ducks haven’t played there since beating the Trojans in that bizarro 2020 Pac-12 championship game in an empty stadium.
8. Round 1 of Oregon’s home-and-home series with Oklahoma State resulted in a 69-3 Ducks win — and the Cowboys fired longtime coach Mike Gundy two weeks later. In Round 2, I expect OSU to score a few more points at home after hiring offensive whiz Eric Morris away from North Texas to replace Gundy.
9. In 2024, Boise State gave Oregon quite the scare in the Ducks’ 37-34 win over the Broncos at Autzen. And while BSU did win the Mountain West in 2025, without an Ashton Jeanty-type player, I don’t expect Oregon to struggle much against the Broncos to kick off the year.
10. If I had to pick a Big Ten road trip — other than Ohio State — to attend as a fan? Well, it’s not East Lansing. Nor is it Los Angeles. You’ve been there plenty of times.
Book Illinois. The Illini are hosting the Ducks for the first time since 1993, won nine games in 2025, have shown up in a handful of those 2026 top 25s and, let’s face it, when else are you going to get out to Champaign, Illinois?
