Ohio State AD Gene Smith suggests College Football Playoff govern FBS instead of NCAA

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith made headlines this week when he suggested the 10 FBS conferences operate under the umbrella of the College Football Playoff with their own rules, instead of operating under the NCAA.

Speaking from the Big Ten spring meetings this week, Smith told ESPN he is "just throwing ideas out," but he believes the schools that offer 85 scholarships need their own set of rules.

"We [can] create our own rules, create our own governance structure, have our own enforcement, we have our own requirements, whatever that might be," Smith told ESPN. " ... That might be in the medical space, for example, if a student-athlete is injured and hurt in his or her senior year. You take care of them when they're done until they're healed. And we have the funding in place to do that. You don't touch anything else with the NCAA. You keep the academic requirements in place. The reality is, those schools who offer 85 scholarships in football have made a different commitment and that needs to be addressed."

Smith's comments come as college football faces mounting changes. Topics such as the transfer portal and putting restrictions on NIL deals are being heavily debated all while the NCAA gets a massive overhaul. The Big 12 is still considering splitting into different football divisions — a topic that dates back to last season — although the restructuring of the NCAA has supposedly put those plans on hold. 

Whether or not he is simply spitballing ideas, Smith's words carry a lot of weight in the college football world. As CBS Sports points out, Smith could play a key role in how the college football landscape is reconfigured.

"The CFP model needs to be looked at differently," Smith continued. "As we consider expansion, we ought to consider the structure. The reality is we need to begin to control our own space. We've got to make sure we're careful with antitrust, but at the end of the day, we need different rules."