This year’s College Football Playoffs were announced Sunday morning, and not everyone was happy with the results.

Unsurprisingly, Oregon was a No. 1 seed and earned a first-round bye, but beyond that, the Ducks arguably face a tougher path to the championship than No. 6 Penn State. Oregon defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 in the Big Ten championship game Saturday night, capping its flawless 13-0 season. However, after their bye, the Ducks will face a team ranked higher than all of Penn State’s opponents on their respective paths to the title.

Oregon plays in the Rose Bowl against either Ohio State or Tennessee, ranked No. 6 and No. 7 in the country, respectively. On the other side of the bracket, Penn State must beat No. 11 seed SMU before facing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl – the Broncos are a No. 3 seed in the playoffs but a No. 9 seed.

Oregon’s Big Ten title is the reason they were able to secure the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye, but the rest is because both Arizona State and Boise State are seeded well ahead of their rankings thanks to their own conference titles members of the field below them were shuffled, resulting in the Ducks being dealt a pretty brutal hand.

Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt criticized the CFP committee for giving Oregon what he said was a much more difficult postseason schedule.

“What a terrible job this committee did…The team that was punished the most was @oregonfootball and the team that was rewarded the most was @PennStateFball…I guess the Ducks should have forfeited in the fourth game…Exactly cruel,” Klatt wrote on X.

Klatt added that a simple solution in the CFP format would be to reseed teams after the first round to reward those who put together the best regular seasons.

The Ducks may not have received the best draft after their dominant 2024 season, but their week-long bye should at least prove valuable on New Year’s Day.