Buckeyes Coach Ryan Day Reveals Thoughts on New Playoff Format

In a recent interview Ohio State head coach Ryan Day talked about the challenges that will come with an expanded college football playoff.

Author:
Harrison Reno
Jul 13, 2023 9:33 PM EDT

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Ohio State Buckeyes

A lot has been made of Ohio State Buckeyes coach Ryan Day's recent interview with Joel Klatt of Fox Sports. The pairing touched on numerous topics surrounding college football, from the controversial nature of the targeting rule to the new and upcoming college football playoff format and even what other changes the Buckeyes coach would like to see going forward.

While Day's comments about the targeting rule made many headlines following the 42-41 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, Day also gave his initial thoughts on the upcoming playoff format.

"I think it's big. ... I think the first thing is, how you approach the season is going to completely change, ..." Day said. "One or two games could ruin your entire season right now, the way we have it set up. I think the way it's moving forward with the playoffs, the idea is going to be to play your best football at the end of the season. Very much like the NFL."

Yet, the expansion from four to 12 teams wasn't the only big change with the playoffs, as starting in 2025, first-round games will be hosted on college campuses. The prospect of hosting playoff games undoubtedly adds excitement to postseason play and provides teams who don't get the bye week a potentially advantageous consolation prize.

While Day would obviously love to be one of the top-four teams every time Ohio State makes the playoffs, having to play in the first round will be sweeter if they are the home team.

"It's going to be interesting to see how that playoff system works, ..." Day said. "Playing a home game in Columbus in December is going to be fun."

The new playoff format wasn't the only change that Day endorsed, as he also expressed interest in seeing the college game imitate the NFL further by shortening the width of the field. A big discrepancy between the college and professional games is the latter has hash marks just 18' six" apart. That is much smaller than college, which has the hashes 40 feet apart.

For a coach rumored to have an interest in coaching in the NFL, it isn't surprising that Day would like to see more changes in college football to be more similar to the NFL.