Yes, Ohio State's Ryan Day is the top-ranked coach in the Big Ten. This isn't a debate until somebody dethrones the three-time defending Big Ten champions.
Sure, Day has only one full season as a head coach under his belt. He's also 16-1 with a College Football Playoff appearance, and the recruiting machine Urban Meyer built has not slowed down. Day was ranked No. 7 in our 1-130 overall rankings, and we're good with that, too.
MORE 2020 COACH RANKINGS
ACC | Pac 12 | Big 12
Penn State's James Franklin, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Wisconsin's Paul Chryst are the next three coaches on the list — and their order depends on the year. Ohio State won four games against those teams by an average of 21 points last season.
If you want to be the top coach, then you have to take out the Buckeyes. That's why Day sits on top heading into the 2020 season.
Here's a deeper look at our Big Ten coach rankings for 2020 (record at current school):
2020 Big Ten Coach Rankings
| RANK | COACH | SCHOOL | W | L | PCT | OVR |
| 1 | Ryan Day | Ohio State | 16 | 1 | .941 | 7 |
| 2 | James Franklin | Penn State | 56 | 23 | .709 | 9 |
| 3 | Jim Harbaugh | Michigan | 47 | 18 | .723 | 11 |
| 4 | Paul Chryst | Wisconsin | 52 | 16 | .765 | 12 |
| 5 | Kirk Ferentz | Iowa | 162 | 104 | .609 | 22 |
| 6 | P.J. Fleck | Minnesota | 23 | 15 | .605 | 23 |
| 7 | Pat Fitzgerald | Northwestern | 99 | 79 | .556 | 29 |
| 8 | Scott Frost | Nebraska | 9 | 15 | .375 | 35 |
| 9 | Tom Allen | Indiana | 18 | 20 | .474 | 41 |
| 10 | Jeff Brohm | Purdue | 17 | 21 | .447 | 49 |
| 11 | Mel Tucker | Michigan State | 0 | 0 | .000 | 54 |
| 12 | Lovie Smith | Illinois | 15 | 34 | .306 | 73 |
| 13 | Mike Locksley | Maryland | 3 | 9 | .250 | 79 |
| 14 | Greg Schiano | Rutgers | 68 | 67 | .503 | 80 |
Quick reads
—You can make a case for putting Harbaugh over Franklin knowing that he has a 3-2 advantage head to head and the teams have essentially traded home victories the past four seasons. Penn State is 31-8 the past three seasons. Michigan is 27-12. We'll give the edge to Franklin as a result.
— Iowa's Kirk Ferentz has been embroiled in a controversy in the aftermath of the suspension of strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle. That signals the need for a cultural shift within the program despite winning 10 games last season. Would you take Ferentz or Minnesota's P.J. Fleck for the next three years?
— Nebraska's Scott Frost is slipping down the pecking order a bit after two seasons. He has 15 losses in two seasons. To put that in perspective, Fleck — who jumped into the top 25 of our overall rankings — has 15 losses in three seasons. Frost was not lying about the brick-by-brick rebuild required in Lincoln.
— The Big Ten had 10 coaches ranked in our top 50 in the overall rankings. That's an indicator of conference strength. Indiana's Tom Allen jumped 26 spots to No. 41, and Purdue's Jeff Brohm fell 17 spots to No. 49. When the Indiana schools have coaches in the top 50, that says something.