Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is making a statement. The Big Ten deserves respect and is making it clear when it comes to representation in the College Football Playoff.
Speaking to On3 Sports, Day expressed his support for the conference’s push to secure automatic qualifier spots in the CFP moving forward. Under the newly expanded 12-team playoff model, Day believes the Big Ten's size and strength should come with guarantees.
“We should have four automatic qualifiers from the jump because we have 18 teams,” Day said. “We added those four teams from the Pac-12 and we play nine games.”
The College Football Playoff debuted its 12-team format last season, but there’s been plenty of debate over how teams will get in. As it stands, the system uses straight seeding, based on the final CFP Selection Committee rankings. This means that the top four teams, regardless of conference champion status, will receive a first-round bye.
That model doesn’t sit well with many inside the Big Ten, which expanded to 18 teams by adding Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA. The conference will now feature deeper schedules and more high-stakes matchups, including its traditional nine-game league format.
Day’s argument centers on the idea that a conference with that much size, depth, and quality deserves more than just the chance to get teams in.
Automatic qualifiers could give leagues like the Big Ten or SEC a more stable pathway to the postseason, especially if their top teams beat up on each other during the regular season.
Without AQs, even a team that finishes second or third in a loaded Big Ten might miss out due to strength of schedule losses, while a lower-tier champion from a weaker league sneaks in.
For coaches like Day, who guided Ohio State to a national title game in 2020 and has made multiple playoff appearances, that risk is real and potentially unnecessary .
The debate over automatic qualifiers is far from settled. With realignment reshaping the Power 4 landscape. But for now, coaches like Ryan Day are making their positions known: If the Big Ten is built like a super-league, it should be treated like one.