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Ohio State's Ryan Day Makes Bold Claim About Future of College Football Playoff

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Nicholas McGee | Last updated Jun 4, 2025 8:51 PM ET

The Ohio State Buckeyes won the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff last season, and head coach Ryan Day believes the Big Ten is deserving of more guaranteed spots in future editions.

Day led the Buckeyes to glory as an at-large selection in the 2024 season, the first following the expansion of the playoff for four teams to 12.

College football leaders are debating what form the playoff will take from the 2026 campaign, with proposals featuring more automatic spots for the Big Ten and the SEC attracting some negative responses.

The SEC’s spring meetings saw a model with automatic entires for the top five conference champions and 11 at-large spots, expanding the playoff from 12 to 16 teams, gain increasing support.

That format has received repeated backing from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, but the Big Ten has not publicly thrown its weight behind any revised model.

It has discussed one that would see four teams from the Big Ten and SEC receive automatic berths, with the Big 12 and ACC getting two each, along with one for the top Group of Five conference champion.

The Big 12 and ACC are against that plan, but Day is firmly in favor.

"We're in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country," Day told ESPN. "I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers.

"It only makes sense when you have 18 teams, especially the quality of the teams that you have (in) that many teams representing the Big Ten."

Ohio State opens the 2025 season against the Texas Longhorns in a rematch of last season's semifinal matchup, and Day feels the presence of automatic qualifiers would lead to stronger non-conference scheduling.

"If you don't have those automatic qualifiers, you're less likely to play a game like we're playing this year against Texas, because it just won't make sense," Day said.

"If we do, then you're more likely to do that, because we play nine conference games in the Big Ten. The SEC doesn't. So it's not equal."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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