INDIANAPOLIS – The duck is everywhere this summer, and so are the ducks.

As Oregon’s mascot tours the Big Ten campuses, the football program is a staple in national championship conversations.

The Ducks were ranked No. 3 in the coaches’ preseason poll released last week and are No. 2 in ESPN’s power ratings. Their odds of winning the national title (courtesy of FanDuel) are lower than any team not named Georgia or Ohio State. Their quarterback is the betting favorite for the Heisman Trophy.

The hype seems justified: Coach Dan Lanning’s squad is peppered with returnees from a team that won 12 games last season and narrowly missed the College Football Playoffs.

But the high expectations for 2024 would not be possible without a generation of young talent for eternity.

Oregon’s freshman and transfer class features the highest percentage of blue-chip prospects in school history (during a normal recruiting cycle) and is considered one of the greatest collections of talent for a West Coast program since recruiting services began evaluating candidates.

According to 247Sports’ database, the Ducks have signed 41 players in the 2023-24 recruiting cycle, 25 of whom have four- or five-star ratings.

That blue-chip percentage of 60.9 has only been exceeded once in Eugene, and that was in the winter of 2020-21, when the recruiting calendar was thrown into disarray due to COVID, forcing candidates to select schools without visiting campus, and the Ducks came out on top with a blue-chip percentage of 71.

“What Oregon signed in 2024, whether through the traditional high school recruiting route or through the transfer portal, was one of the most elite classes of players you’ll see in the region,” said Brandon Huffman, 247Sports national recruiting editor based in the Pacific Northwest.

“Five-star player out of high school? Check. The best junior college player in California? Check. The second-best transfer class in the country, including two of the top 10 transfers overall? Check.”

The class has it all, starting with the most coveted quarterback on the transfer market, Dillon Gabriel, a sixth-year senior who spent three seasons at UCF and two at Oklahoma and is considered a preseason favorite for the Heisman vote.

Notably, Gabriel does not have a five-star rating from 247Sports. He is one of 22 four-star prospects that make up Oregon’s recruiting class.

The five-star players are receiver Evan Stewart, a transfer from Texas A&M, and two high school freshmen, edge rusher Elijah Rushing from Tucson and receiver Gatlin Bair from Idaho, who is serving a church mission and will join the Ducks in 2026.

By comparison, Oregon’s 2016 recruiting class, which included Justin Herbert, had a blue-chip percentage of just 28.5 percent. And the 2011 class, which included quarterback Marcus Mariota, had a blue-chip rate of 39.1 percent.

“It’s never just one thing,” Lanning told the Hotline last month at Big Ten Football Media Days. “But after the first year, we were able to sit back and say, ‘We did this,’ and then after the second year, it was, ‘We were able to do this. Would you like to be a part of it?'”

“The product we were able to put on the field combined with the experience they have has really created a story for the guys who join our program.

“Good players want to play with good players. And we were lucky that enough guys wanted to play with each other.”

The creation of the transfer portal and changes to NCAA rules regarding class size and immediate eligibility make comparisons to pre-COVID recruiting difficult, especially in terms of the amount of promising talent a given school signs.

But percentage-wise, Oregon’s class is among the best on the West Coast in decades.

USC’s outstanding 2003 class, which included Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Matt Kalil and Sedrick Ellis, had a blue-chip percentage of 42.8.

Washington’s 2014 class, which included Budda Baker, Dante Pettis, Greg Gaines and a host of players who helped the Huskies reach three consecutive New Year’s Six games, had a blue-chip percentage of just 16.6.

“It’s a big process for us,” Lanning said. “They’re all about creating a complete recruiting experience.”

“First, it’s about making sure these guys are a good fit for us. Then we have the opportunity to say, ‘What’s our selling point to make sure this guy comes and checks out our program?’ Before they get to campus, we create a story for them, almost a preview of a movie: ‘Hey, this is what it looks like when you get here.’

“And when they get here, we make sure the experience is better than any other place they go.

“Ultimately, the product you put on the field, your seasons, will tell you how successful you are and what you can accomplish.”

Oregon’s advancement to the Big Ten this season has bolstered Lanning’s sales strategy, as has the Ducks’ outstanding NIL (name, image and likeness) play.

Thanks to the backing of Nike founder Phil Knight and former company executives, Oregon has one of the best-funded and organized NIL operations in the country, allowing the Ducks to compete with high-profile programs for top-tier recruits.

Earlier this year, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen told a group of Cornhusker donors that Oregon spent $23 million on NIL compensation, comparable to Ohio State’s budget.

Although Dannen is familiar with Eugene’s recruiting machine – he headed Washington’s athletic department for six months – the details of Oregon’s NIL budget have not been publicly confirmed.

“Do we have a lot more than everybody else? I think that would be over the top, otherwise we would never lose,” Lanning told ESPN last month.

The Ducks haven’t lost much under Lanning, posting a 22-5 record in his two seasons, but they are 0-3 against Washington and have no CFP berth.