The Big Ten and SEC have spent the offseason lobbying for an expanded College Football Playoff featuring multiple automatic bids for each conference, potentially up to four apiece for themselves. That is music to the ears of Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who would stand to benefit greatly from that restructuring of the CFP selection process considering his program perennially stands in the Big Ten’s top echelon. Day has been an outspoken proponent of the multi-automatic bid model as it picked up traction this spring.
Leaders in the Big Ten and SEC reportedly favor a playoff in which their leagues receive four guaranteed berths while the ACC and Big 12 hold two each. Their proposals also reward the highest-ranked Group of Five champion with a bid and Notre Dame with an automatic bracket spot if it ranks inside the top 14 or 16, depending on the size of the field.
“We’re in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country,” Day said to ESPN. “I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers.”
Conference expansion not only reshaped college football’s power dynamic, but also made league schedules more challenging. With the best teams in the country more likely to sustain losses in the regular season, differentiating between playoff hopefuls’ résumés becomes en even trickier venture, particularly when it comes to the comparison between mediocre wins and so-called quality losses.
“You would have had at least a team or two [in the CFP] from out there,” Day said in reference to the West Coast teams the Big Ten added last year. “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.”
Much of Day’s argument for automatic bids stems from his looming non-conference date with fellow national championship contender Texas. Day and other coaches warned that marquee matchups out of league play could go by the wayside if there is no protection in the playoff selection process for teams who schedule high-profile contests.
“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.”
Not all coaches, and particularly those from outside the Big Ten-SEC structure, agree that granting berths is best for the sport. Miami’s Mario Cristobal is among those to speak outagainst the proposed model, which could further drive a wedge between the most powerful conferences and the rest.