Ryan Day, the Ohio State Buckeyes head coach since 2019, has been critical about several aspects of the state of college football this offseason. Whether it is concerns about tampering, a lack of NCAA rule enforcement, the transfer portal, or in the latest case, the college football playoff.
On Wednesday, the 45-year-old coach appeared on “The Triple Option” with Rob Stone and challenged the idea of automatic byes for conference champions.
“I think it was clear this year that the automatic byes were a little out of whack,” Day said. “When you see how it all shook out, I think they need to rethink that. I understand why, in the first year, it was done that way. I think that if you win your conference, sure, you should get in. But, you get a bye? I think that’s a little much.”
In this year’s playoff bracket, the four byes were assigned to the highest-ranked conference champions, which included Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State.
Per the NCAA’s explanation of how byes and seeding work, “The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a first-round bye, while the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion will be seeded between five and 12. That seed will depend on the CFP top 25 rankings. In other words, even if the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion is ranked No. 18 in the final CFP top 25 rankings, that team will be the No. 12 seed as that last automatic qualifier.”
Also, “only conference champions can receive the No. 1 through No. 4 seeds.”
Day seems to disagree with the placement of Boise State and Arizona State, which earned a bye and began the tournament in the quarterfinals. This pushed Ohio State’s seed down to No. 8, although it did all work out for the Buckeyes as they went on to win the CFP National Championship against Notre Dame.
If non-conference champions could have earned byes last year, Texas and Penn State would have been the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds.
The SEC and Big Ten have plans to reshape the college football playoff through expansion and schedule changes. The two powerful conferences will have broader control of the CFP in 2026.
