Mario Cristobal can be mad.

His team beat No. 9 Notre Dame, has the same number of losses as the Irish and looks destined to be shut out of the playoff.

Kalen DeBoer can be mad.

His team has three wins over teams ranked in the top 20 and may find itself in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

Dan Lanning?

He can sit back and chuckle.

In Eugene, the math is pretty simple. Win and the Ducks are in.

Unsurprisingly, the latest CFP rankings are a chaotic mess and a study in contradictions. When quality losses seem to count for more than quality wins, something isn’t quite adding up. However, this time around, the hurricane of controversy is missing Oregon entirely.

Could this be shaping up any better for the Ducks?

Avoid the double-edged sword of the Big Ten championship game. Play a relatively soft schedule and lose your one game against a truly quality opponent.

And still coast into the playoff with a clear path to a first-round home game. Let everyone quibble and battle this out in the SEC and ACC, the Ducks are sitting pretty.

After Tuesday, they are ranked No. 7 in the CFP. All that stands in the way of hosting at Autzen Stadium in December are Saturday’s home matchup with 15th-ranked USC and a date in Seattle with the Huskies.

Neither of those is a gimme, of course. But is either of them all that scary?

Even with all the hype brought on by rankings and the blessing of College GameDay, the Ducks are double-digit favorites against the Trojans this weekend. Oregon’s stable of running backs should run for miles against the Men of Troy, and if UO, with the nation’s No. 1 pass defense, can limit USC through the air, this may not be particularly close.

Looking ahead, Washington has repeatedly folded on the big stage this season.

That leaves the CFP committee with little to think about when it comes to the Ducks.

Sure, you can poke significant holes in their résumé. Their best wins came on the road at Penn State and Iowa, teams that are no longer ranked.

But the Ducks would still be 11-1 and have a seat at the table.

That’s the goal, right?

Gone are the days where you can win a national championship in the regular season. The Ducks learned that lesson the hard way a year ago, when they ran the table including a win over Ohio State, outlasted Penn State in the Big Ten title game and were rewarded with a rematch with the Buckeyes in Pasadena.

I’m not sure this is all that good for the product of college football, by the way. Oregon is being rewarded for stacking wins against the worst of the Big Ten and the likes of Oklahoma State (oof), Oregon State (ooof), while Alabama is being punished for taking on the challenge of Florida State in the season opener and losing.

What is the incentive to ever schedule a good nonconference game again?

The CFP remedied its biggest problem from Year 1 by eliminating automatic byes for conference champions. The Ducks had to be the guinea pig for that one.

But from a playoff standpoint, Oregon is in a better position now than it was a year ago. They are unlikely to qualify for the Big Ten championship game — though it is still technically possible — which serves no benefit for a team that already has established playoff position.

And assuming they win out, they should stay in the top eight and get the benefit of a home playoff game before the quarterfinal round. In the latest rankings, that would be against No. 10 Alabama, which would be an incredible scene — although an unlikely one in reality, given that Alabama’s path to reaching the playoff would likely require a win over No. 4 Georgia or No. 6 Ole Miss.

I’m still not sure what to expect from Oregon once they reach the playoff, assuming they do. They have looked beatable in each of their games against quality opponents. Then again, in two of those, Dante Moore demonstrated the moxie needed to pull out wins.

By avoiding the kind of slip-up that Miami had against SMU or Alabama experienced at Florida State, the Ducks retained all their power in this process.

And with the CFP committee often unsure how to best untangle complicated questions, they can’t be mad about their fate being in their own hands.

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