The Big Ten, which has produced the last two national champions (Ohio State in 2024 and Michigan in 2023), has a case for being the best conference in college football, and the head coach of the defending-champion Buckeyes, Ryan Day, feels that should be reflected in the College Football Playoff.
“We’re in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country. I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers,” Day said about the Big Ten, citing the conference’s “quality of teams,” according to ESPN.
Last summer, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule expressed a similar sentiment about the Big Ten, saying “four teams” should get into the College Football Playoff because it’s the “best league” in the sport.
The Big Ten got to 18 schools when Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington joined for the 2024 season.
Following a 10-year run of the four-team College Football Playoff, the sport introduced the 12-team playoff format in 2024. The top-four seeded conference winners earned a first-round bye, with seven teams receiving at-large bids.
Last month, it was announced that the format was being altered for the 2025 season, with the top four ranked teams overall now receiving first-round byes, as opposed to a team winning their respective conference being a requisite to earn the first-round bye. However, winning a respective conference will still give a team a spot in the playoffs.
Last season, Ohio State was the No. 8 seed in the playoffs, following a 10-2 regular season. The Buckeyes then won four consecutive games to win the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State was one of four Big Ten schools to make the College Football Playoff, Oregon, Penn State and Indiana being the other three.
Day and the Buckeyes open the 2025 season at home against the Texas Longhorns on Aug. 30 in what’s a rematch of last season’s College Football Playoff semifinal round; Ohio State beat Texas, 28-14.
Day provided his perspective on why the Big Ten having a handful of shoo-in playoff teams is necessary.
Ohio State is coming off its first national title in a decade. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
“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.”
Ohio State has made the College Football Playoff six times since the four-team playoff was instituted in 2014, three of those appearances coming with Day as head coach (2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024 seasons).
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