Depending on whom you ask, expectations for the Oregon Ducks’ 2022 football season vary quite a bit.
If you were to ask a fan who has been dialed into the spring football season and watching as new head coach Dan Lanning racks up highly rated recruits, the feeling is that the Ducks should get back to the top of the mountain out west and contend for a Pac-12 championship this coming season.
However, national pundits may be a bit cooler on the Ducks, waiting first to see how Lanning — a first-year head coach — acquits himself and is able to handle the pressure of calling the shots. That’s not to say that there are swaths of people predicting that Oregon will be bad in 2022, but they may not be as bullish on the Ducks as the Eugene faithful.
You can count the ESPN Football Power Index in the latter group.
The FPI measures a team’s true strength on a net point scale; expected point margin vs. opponent on a neutral field, while giving a percent chance to go undefeated, win the Pac-12, make the CFP, and ultimately win the national championship.
Here is how the FPI predicts Oregon’s season will play out: