Will Ohio State Actually Fire Ryan Day?

But Saturday's meeting left no excuses for Day and the Buckeyes, playing in front of their home crowd against a Michigan team that had struggled to live up to their "defending national title" majesty. The Wolverines lost a long list of key players in the offseason, and came into Saturday's game unranked, with a meager record of 6-5. Furthermore, this year's UM group was without arguably their best players on both sides of the ball Saturday, as cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland were unable to suit up due to injury.

There were moments throughout the game where it felt like the Buckeyes were finally going to pull away, but as the quarters came and went with the game remaining close, Ohio State's tightness was palpable with the pressure mounting on each possession.

Despite being gifted multiple opportunities to close the game out, the Buckeyes failed to put away the Wolverines, who took a 13-10 lead late in the fourth quarter. Still, Ohio State had plenty of time to move down the field and set up a potential game-tying field goal or go-ahead touchdown, but they never got anywhere close.

As if the game itself wasn't ugly enough for Day, his team engaged in a full-on brawl after the clock hit all zeroes, taking issue with Michigan players planting their school flag at midfield of their rival's home field.

So, where does this leave Day, who has been one of the most successful head coaches in all of college football...unless he's facing Michigan?

Most programs would (and indeed try to) pay anything for a coach that would lead them to a 66-10 record, competing for conference championships and being in the national title conversation on a yearly basis. But that success is starting to ring hollow to a fan base that hasn't seen their Buckeyes finish the job and win it all under Day. Beating up on Northwestern and Purdue just doesn't hold much water when you keep losing to Michigan, and can't bring home a national championship.

The Buckeyes are indeed paying a pretty penny for Day's services, as he currently ranks as the fifth-highest paid head coach in college football, coming in at just shy of $10 million per season. Were the Buckeyes to move on from Day, he would be owed a little over $37 million as a buyout, per The Columbus Dispatch. 

That's obviously a decent chunk of change to pay someone not to coach your team, but it's probably not enough to dissuade the program's decision-makers from making that move if they deemed it necessary.

In most cases, firing a head coach with Day's recent track record of success would seem preposterous. But this isn't most cases, and this particular loss could send a message to OSU's brass that no matter how good their team is, and how much better they think they are than Michigan, it won't matter as long as Day's running the ship.

The obvious way for Day to save himself from that debate is to finally finish the job this year, and bring home a national title. He'll have to hope for some help now, since his team won't have the opportunity to play for the Big 10 championship, and will need things to fall the right way elsewhere for his team to still land a spot in this year's 12-team field for the College Football Playoff.

Day has won a lot of games in Columbus, but this is why they call this one, "The Game." It's the only one that matters to both sides, and it may be the reason why Day ends up looking for a new job next season.