Oregon Ducks Earn Lackluster Rank From Joel Klatt

With a very "atmospheric rain" soaked 21-7 win against the Wisconsin Badgers at Autzen Stadium, the No. 6 Oregon Ducks stare down four more games till the end of their 2025-2026 regular season, which means rankings say more about the teams' status than ever before.

Recently, college football analyst Joel Klatt ranked the top ten teams via his podcast, "The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football on FOX Pod." Klatt credited Oregon's "ugly" win against the Badgers as one of the reasons the Ducks found themselves at No. 6 on his ranking.

"Offense just wasn't quite what I thought it would be," Klatt said. "Although Wisconsin does have a decent defense. That's one thing about Wisconsin. Now, Wisconsin couldn't do anything on the offensive side of the football. So, the game was never in doubt."

Oregon quarterback Brock Thomas, left, hands off the ball to running back Jordon Davison as the Oregon Ducks host the Wisconsin Badgers on Oct. 25, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Joel Klatt's Week 9 Top-10 Team Rankings

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Oregon
7. Notre Dame
8. Ole Miss
9. Miami
10. BYU

Though Klatt's top six identically mirrors the weeks' AP poll, Klatt provided plenty of reasons why Oregon sits at the No. 6 spot.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning as the Oregon Ducks host the Wisconsin Badgers on Oct. 25, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Comparing to Last Years' Ohio State

Klatt pointed at last years' Ohio State as one of the reason Oregon could rebound in the back half of their season. After losing 32-31 against the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium in October of last year, the Buckeyes bounced back to not only defeat the Ducks at the 2025 Rose Bowl 41-21, they went all the way to the College Football National Championship and won against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for the title.

For Klatt, coach Dan Lanning's persistence is the key to the Ducks' potential bounce back.

"I do like Oregon still," Klatt said. "There's this part of me that thinks about Oregon and I think about the way Ohio State grew from their midseason loss a year a go in particularly on the defensive side and I think about the urgency with which Dan Lanning coaches and the fact that this guy is what I would call a 'stone turner'. Here's what a stone turner is: he will turn over every single stone to figure out what's going wrong, what's going right, how are we going to get better. The guy just looks in every nook and cranny."

Oregon running back Jordon Davison celebrates a touchdown as the Oregon Ducks host the Wisconsin Badgers on Oct. 25, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

MORE: Evan Stewart's Looming Return for Oregon Ducks Should Scare Rest of College Football

MORE: Oregon Ducks Flexing Quarterback Depth With New Rising Star

MORE: Injured Oregon Quarterback Dante Moore's Classy Move After Brock Thomas Took Over

The Rest of Oregon's Season

Standing in the way of a successful post season is the final four games of Oregon's season. Oregon only has one ranked team to face in No. 23 USC, and two potential tricky games on the road against the Iowa Hawkeyes and their Big Ten (former PAC-12) foe, the Washington Huskies.

Nov. 8: Oregon at Iowa
Nov. 14: Oregon vs Minnesota
Nov. 22: Oregon vs No. 23 USC
Nov. 29: Oregon at Washington

"And so because of that [Indiana] loss, I don't think that they're going to be able to focus and evaluate and develop past that. And so, to me, they're No. 6," Klatt said.