The Oregon Ducks and head coach Dan Lanning, after falling short of another National Championship in 2025, will look to rewrite history during the upcoming college football season.

While the program’s 2026 schedule is projected to be easier than last year’s slate, there are multiple games this year that could become a sneaky challenge for the Ducks due to their place on the schedule.

Here are Oregon’s three biggest “trap games” during the 2026 college football season.

The long-standing rivalry between the two former PAC-12 powerhouses, the USC Trojans and the Ducks, has now carried over to the Big 10 Conference, with both programs looking to make noise in 2026.

This year, however, Oregon’s battle against head coach Lincoln Riley will be Lanning’s first conference matchup of the 2026 season. And while the Ducks’ schedule features three tune-up games before the highly anticipated contest, a road matchup against USC will be the team’s first test in 2026. Quarterback Jayden Maiava now has a full season of experience under his belt, and after a brutal 42-27 loss to the Ducks last season, it’s clear that the Trojans will be seeking revenge in 2026.

While the Illinois Fighting Illini failed to reach the high expectations set upon the program last season, head coach Bret Bielema and his squad could give the Ducks a major headache in the middle of its 2025 campaign.

Oregon’s road matchup against Illinois comes in the heart of the program’s conference schedule, while also lying two weeks ahead of the Ducks’ brutal stretch against the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines. The Fighting Illini lost multiple key veterans from the 2025 season, such as quarterback Luke Altmyer, but due to the contest taking place in Champaign, IL, Lanning and his players must overcome the mid-season hump in order to keep their playoff hopes alive heading into the later parts of the schedule.

After taking on the Ohio State Buckeyes in Week 10 of the upcoming college football season, the Ducks are set to return home and take on the Michigan Wolverines in one of the program’s final regular-season home games.

Led by former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, the fellow Big 10 Conference member will look to have a massive bounce-back season after finishing with a disappointing 9-4 record in 2025. Depending on how well Lanning’s squad performs in the prior week against the Buckeyes, the Week 11 matchup could become a pivotal contest when determining which programs advance to the Conference Championship.

Oregon may be the heavy favorite leading up to the game, making this a key contest.

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