Ohio State football head coach Ryan Day took over the program in 2019 after Urban Meyer left. Day inherited a gold mine with the Buckeyes as they had dominated the Big Ten under Meyer, and during his first two seasons, it was much of the same. Ohio State won the Big Ten in 2019 and 2020, but Day hasn't been able to get the Buckeyes there since. However, with new College Football Playoff rules, Day understands how important winning that conference championship is.
The College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams this year, and under the new format, Ohio State football seems like a lock to make it every year. However, if the Buckeyes want to win a national championship, winning the conference title game will go a long way.
With the new CFP rules, the four highest-ranked conference champions will get a bye into the second round of the playoff. So, if you don't win your conference, you have to win four straight games to win it all instead of three if you are one of the four highest-ranked champs.
Winning the conference is important, and Ryan Day noted that he has had some conversations will Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti about how this new format impacts playing in a conference championship game.
“He's brought this up before and what that means and should there be some conversation about what that means on that weekend?” Day said at Big Ten media days on Wednesday, according to an article from ESPN. “I won't get into all of the conversation that's been had, but it's a great question and a great point.”
Day has won two Big Ten titles, and he noted that it is something that he will never forget. You can still make the playoff without winning your conference, but the importance of the conference championship isn't going away.
“I think what that's meant to college football, the tradition of college football and playing in this stadium, the electricity of that weekend and what it means to win the conference, especially having 18 teams now — it just means so much,” Day said. “To take that away would be a challenge. When you look at it practically from a wider lens of the playoff, I can see the argument on both sides. But I'd like to play for the Big Ten championship. You can't replicate it. It's one of those things you don't forget.”
Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart has an interesting take on the matter
Ryan Day isn't the only head coach talking about this. One concern for Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart is that not playing in your conference championship might actually be better than playing in it and losing.
“We have said, as coaches, the SEC runner-up is the one that's — really in the old system it wasn't great either, because you could play yourself in or play yourself out,” Smart said. “Now it's, ‘OK, I gotta go through a gauntlet after this thing; the gauntlet's not worth the reward.' I disagree. I am an SEC-enthusiastic person, core through, 25 years. The SEC championship to me — and I mean this with all my heart — is just as valuable as the national championship because they are so hard to come by, and guess what? They just got harder. I don't want to be the loser of that game. The winner is going to be the team that might sit at home and be third and realistically get in by some way, shape or form. They didn't play that SEC championship game. I worry there's a situation where somebody goes, ‘You know what? We're better off just not playing our starters and not winning this game so we don't have to play in that game but we can still get in the show.' I hope that doesn't happen.”
Giving an automatic bid is something that is new with the 12-team playoff, and College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark is excited that it gives every conference, and every team, a chance.
“That allows every conference to have that opportunity to put a team into the playoff, and that's something that we absolutely needed,” Rich Clark said. “It means something when those championship games are played. As teams are going through the season, they know that's a path that they have.”
There's no doubt about it, winning the conference title is important. Ryan Day, Kirby Smart and every coach out there knows that. But Smart has a point that things get tricky for the teams behind the champ.
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