Ryan Day will probably have trouble sleeping at night as Ohio State closes in on the start of the 2021 season.
That’s because the Buckeyes begin the upcoming season with a pair of legitimate challenges — a Thursday night road game at Minnesota and a marquee non-conference game against Oregon — and Day knows a loss in even one of those games could derail Ohio State’s national championship hopes. With the current four-team College Football Playoff format, the only way Ohio State can be certain it will make the field is if it wins every game it plays.
If the playoff expands to 12 teams as has been proposed, however, Ohio State would have a significantly greater margin for error. The current recommendation calls for the six highest-ranked conference champions to receive automatic berths in the 12-team playoff; Day believes the Big Ten champion should have a guaranteed berth, but either way, Ohio State would know a conference championship would likely punch its ticket to the CFP and that it would have a path to the playoff even it loses multiple games in a season.
Day says that could change the way Ohio State approaches the regular season if playoff expansion ultimately comes to pass.
“You think about this season, we open up and if we were to lose to Minnesota and Oregon, the whole season’s ruined. In that scenario, you could run the table and win the national championship because all you gotta do is win the conference and you’re in,” Day said. “So a very, very different approach. We’ll see if it gets to that.”
Day isn’t sure whether that would be better or worse for college football. He says he hasn’t spent much time thinking about that, as his focus is on trying to make the four-team playoff this year, which starts with beating Minnesota on Sept. 2. Personally, though, he wouldn’t mind it being easier for Ohio State to make the CFP.
“I like having a little wiggle room in there,” Day said. “For a lot of reasons. One, for my sleep and my anxiety level, to be honest. You lose a game in the beginning of the year, you’re out. So knowing that maybe if that happens, you can still go on and play in the playoffs would make for a little bit better nights, a little less anxiety.
“But I also think that for college football, some of these teams who are vying for (a playoff berth), let’s say it’s 12 teams, that 8-9-10-11 (seeds in the CFP) in Week 8, 9 or 10 of the season, those games all of a sudden become a little bit bigger where maybe they wouldn’t be without that. I think that will be one argument to have that 12-team or even 8-team playoff.”
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith believes College Football Playoff expansion will be good for the sport. While Smith previously said he was more comfortable with expanding to eight teams rather than 12, he told a group of reporters at Big Ten Media Days on Friday that he has “kind of leaned in and believe that 12 is probably the right number.”
“The more I thought about it and talked about it, I think it would probably increase the interest in the regular season across the board,” Smith said. “I’m not talking about us. I’m talking about the opportunities for others. So for college football, across the board that might make it better.”
Smith and Day still have some concerns about playoff expansion. Chiefly, one concern shared by Day, Smith and current Buckeye players is the impact that an expanded playoff – which could mean playing as many as 16 or 17 games in a season – could have on players’ bodies.
“I definitely start to feel it toward the end of the season anyway, so if they did decide to do that, you’d have to start really preparing for that as far as taking care of your body a lot differently,” Ohio State tight end Jeremy Ruckert said Friday. “They do it in the NFL, so if that’s where you ultimately want to get to, they’re going to play 17 games now, they played 16 before, so I guess you can look at it in that way. But for a college athlete dealing with school, with all that stuff, I think it would definitely be mentally tough and physically tough.”
If the playoff is expanded, Ohio State left tackle Thayer Munford believes the regular season should be shortened or that players should get more time off during the season in order to protect their health.
“The NFL, you get to practice like once a week wearing pads. With us, we practice like twice a week in pads, and that wears on our bodies as well,” Munford said. “We want to play, but also at the same time, we need to rest too to make sure we’re going to be ready for the end of the season and actually don’t be injured.”
Smith said he does not think shortening the regular season is a viable option, as that would negatively impact teams who don’t make the playoff in terms of lost revenue, but he does believe adjustments to the schedule and practice rules need to be considered.
“We’ve got to figure out what is the date of the games, the spacing,” Smith said. "Players want to play, they don't want to practice, so when you get to that time, what are the practice rules? How do they protect their bodies? That has to be continually looked at."
“I definitely start to feel it toward the end of the season anyway, so if they did decide to do that, you’d have to start really preparing for that as far as taking care of your body a lot differently.” – Jeremy Ruckert on potentially playing more playoff games
Day is also concerned about how much is changing in college football all at once. While he has expressed support for players being able to benefit from their name, image and likeness, for the one-time transfer exception and now for playoff expansion, he’s still trying to wrap his head around how so many changes in such a short amount of time could affect the sport.
“I think there’s so much change right now, I honestly can’t tell you which way’s up,” Day said. “With one-time transfer, name, image and likeness, the Alston case, with talk about CFP expansion, talk about (conference) realignment, it’s like, wow. There’s just so many things right now that we may wake up in five years and not recognize college football. It’s just there’s so many giant things that are going on right now.”
Day said he thinks college football decision-makers “really need to be smart about the balance between staying up with the times – because there have been a lot of changes – and making sure that we’re being proactive about these changes, but also making sure that we’re not making so many changes that we wake up one day and don’t recognize the game.”
“I think there’s a lot of good things going on, don’t get me wrong. But when there’s so many changes, you feel like you’re driving with no brakes. And that’s just something you try to get used to. I guess that’s the world of college football right now, and you just have to manage it the best you can. It’s nice to know what’s coming next, and I feel like year in and year out, you just don’t know what’s coming next.”
