Ohio State's Ryan Day Reveals Scheduling Idea Shared With USC Trojans' Lincoln Riley

At Big Ten media day, Ohio State coach Ryan Day was asked about the new proposed College Football Playoff plan proposed by Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. 

Petitti’s plan says that the Big Ten would get four teams automatically qualified into the playoff. This proposal also says that in addition to nine Big Ten conference games, one non-conference game against a power four conference team would also be scheduled. This would mean that Big Ten teams would have to play one regular season game against a team in either the SEC, Big 12, or ACC every season.

Day said he supports this plan if the Big Ten gets the four automatic qualifiers. If they don’t, then he doesn’t believe it’s in their best interest to schedule a 10th game against a power four team. 

“I don’t think it makes sense to do that,” Day said. 

This is indeed very similar to the response that USC Trojans coach Lincoln Riley has had when asked about if he would be in favor to continue scheduling Notre Dame as a non-conference game in the regular season every season. 

Lincoln Riley, Marcus Freeman on Future of USC-Notre Dame Game

This is what Lincoln Riley said earlier this offseason after been asked about the continuation of the historic USC-Notre Dame game. 

“I would love to (continue the USC-Notre Dame series). I know now it means a lot to a lot of people. The purist in you, no doubt," Riley said. “Now, if you get in a position where you got to make a decision on what’s best for SC to help us win a national championship, then you got to look at it.”

The goal for a program like USC especially with the playoff now at 12 teams is to make it to those top 12. There are exponentially more teams invited to this dance so if you’re a team with high expectations, it will be expected for them to go to the playoff. 

More tough games on the schedule that won’t affect the standings in conference play can make it more difficult to get in the dance.

Notre Dame, a team that is not in a conference at all, would like to play USC every single year. This is what Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman has said about the USC-Notre Dame game. 

“Would love to play ‘em (USC) every single single,” Freeman said. “Don’t matter when we play ‘em, I would love to continue the rivalry as long as I’m the head coach here. I think rivalries are great for college football. I think they’re great for sports.”