Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day recently said that he thought the Big Ten deserved at least four conference automatic qualifiers. This goes back to the most recent college football play proposal, where the Big Ten and SEC would like each to have four automatic qualifiers in the 12-team playoff. The other big part of this proposal is to expand the college football playoff from 12 to 16 teams. Day likely commented this way because he thinks it could directly benefit Ohio State. Below is a breakdown of the College Football playoff format and how Ohio State fits into it.
Ryan Day and Ohio State
It is obvious why Ryan Day said that the Big Ten deserves 4 automatic spots in the Big Ten because he just won a National Championship when his team went 10-2 and lost in the last regular season game during the season to Michigan. Ryan Day likely believes that the 4 automatic spots would be good for Ohio State, as they should make the Playoff every season. His thought process is that if he goes 9-3, he still could qualify and get one of the 4 spots the Big Ten got reserved for them. It's easy to understand his logic in a sport where every conference and team are for themselves, which would benefit Ohio State.
Latest on College Football Playoff Proposal
It sounds like the Conference Commissioners have decided to skip jumping from 12 to 14 teams and have directly jumped to 16 teams. The other format discussed is to have a 16-team format with 5 guaranteed spots for conference champions and 11 at-large bids. This would probably seem like a better system since it would not exclude the Big 12 and the ACC conferences, even though Coach Day does make a good point that the Big Ten deserves 4 qualified spots.
The SEC seemed to like the idea of the Big Ten and SEC each getting 4 qualified spots, but at their most recent meetings, the SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey hinted at the SEC seeming to like the 5 guaranteed spots for conference champions and 11 large bids better. The next meeting with all conference commissioners is on June 18th, so by then, we will have a better idea of where the system goes.