Ohio State Buckeyes' Ryan Day Ripped for Annoying Reason

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day has finally earned the respect he deserves after leading Ohio State to its first national championship in a decade this past season, but there are some who are still relatively lukewarm on him as a whole.

Why? Well, you can probably guess the reason: his lack of success against the Michigan Wolverines.

Day has gone just 1-4 against Michigan as Buckeyes coach, and he has lost four straight games to the archrival Wolverines. Heck, after Ohio State fell to Michigan in the season finale back in November, there were many calling for Day's head.

While the 46-year-old was ranked second among college coaches in ESPN's recent survey, analyst Andrea Adelson had him fourth, and she explained why.

"There are a couple of reasons I did not rank Day higher. I think he should be docked for having a poor record against Michigan, the most important game on the schedule every year," Adelson wrote. "He is 1-4 against the Wolverines and lost last season as a prohibitive favorite. The corresponding outrage from the fan base only died down after Ohio State won the national championship. That leads me to my second point. You might be thinking the national title is reason enough to have Day ranked higher. But in any other season, that Michigan loss would have ended the Buckeyes' season. They got a second chance only because of the newly expanded 12-team playoff. For those reasons, I have Day at No. 4."

There are a couple of problems with this assessment. First of all, saying that the outrage from Ohio State fans diminished only following the national championship is pretty strange. I mean, the Buckeyes won the title. Were Ohio State fans still supposed to be upset with him? Winning a national championship is the ultimate goal, and Day achieved it.

Second, it's not Day's fault that there was an expanded 12-team playoff. That's like saying that any MLB or NFL Wild Card team that has won a World Series or a Super Bowl wouldn't have won without playoff expansion. They won the championship fair and square by the rules. It doesn't matter if the setup may have been different in the past.

The fact of the matter is that Day guided the Buckeyes to glory this past winter. Yes, the losses to Michigan are bothersome, but using that to essentially minimize his national title is just wrong.