COLUMBUS, Ohio — After winning the first 12-team College Football Playoff and a national title as an at-large selection in 2024, Ohio State coach Ryan Day would like to see future models include at least four automatic qualifying spots for the expanded Big Ten.
As college football leaders discuss the next version of the CFP, beginning with the 2026 season, there has been recent pushback against templates that include more automatic spots for the Big Ten and the SEC.
At last week’s SEC spring meetings, support grew for a model that included automatic entries for the top five conference champions and 11 at-large spots in a playoff that would expand from 12 to 16 teams next year. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and league administrators last week also voiced support for the 5+11 CFP model.
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The Big Ten has not publicly advocated for a specific playoff model, but it has discussed one that would automatically include four teams for the Big Ten and for the SEC, two each for the Big 12 and ACC, and one for the top Group of 5 champion. The Big 12 and the ACC opposed that plan.
“We’re in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country,” Day told ESPN. “I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers.”
Day noted how the most recent Big Ten expansion added the top teams from the original Pac-12, including the only two — Oregon and Washington — that made the four-team CFP and played for national titles. Washington reached the championship game after the 2023 season, falling to Michigan, and Oregon won the Big Ten last fall and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the CFP, losing to Ohio State in a quarterfinal matchup at the Rose Bowl.
“You would have had at least a team or two [in the CFP] from out there,” Day said, referring to the original Pac-12. “So it only makes sense when you have 18 teams, especially the quality of teams that you would have [in] that many teams representing the Big Ten.”
Day added that a CFP model with more automatic spots will benefit the sport because it will incentivize stronger nonconference scheduling, especially given the discrepancies in conference scheduling models.
“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 [in a 16-team CFP model].”
Ohio State coach Ryan Day
Big Ten and Big 12 teams play nine league games per season, while SEC and ACC teams play eight. Ohio State reached last year’s CFP with two regular-season league losses, but it also didn’t face a Power 4 opponent in nonleague play. Michigan won the final national title of the four-team CFP without playing a Power 4 nonconference opponent.
The Buckeyes open the 2025 season by hosting Texas, last year’s SEC runner-up and a team they defeated in a CFP semifinal matchup at the Cotton Bowl.
“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.”
Both Ohio State and national runner-up Notre Dame played 16 games last season, a number that will become the norm with an ever-expanding playoff. Day said his team, which played its best during the CFP run, benefited from a larger roster, with him noting that roster limits of 105 following the impending House-NCAA settlement will provide challenges.
“I’m concerned about 16 or 17 games with a 105-man roster,” Day said. “With 120, it’s about maxed out. You have to stay healthy, and all it takes are a couple injuries during that long of a run. But in the NFL, you can hire somebody off of waivers. In college football, you can’t. I’m concerned about the length of the season with 105.”
