OSU's Ryan Day Says Big Ten Deserves 'At Least' 4 Automatic Bids in New CFP Bracket

Ohio State was one of four Big Ten teams that made the College Football Playoff last season before it ultimately won the national championship.

Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day believes the conference should be guaranteed four or more bids when the CFP inevitably expands to 16 teams as soon as the 2026 campaign.

"We're in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country," Day told ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. "I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers."

He pointed out the league added Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA from the former Pac-12, which opens the door for it to take some of those spots that would have otherwise gone to those teams in a different conference.

"You would have had at least a team or two [in the CFP] from out there," Day said. "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."

The comments come as debate grows about what an expanded CFP field would look like when there are 16 teams.

Rittenberg noted the Big 12 has supported a model that would give spots to the top five conference champions and 11 at-large bids. However, the Big Ten—which has not publicly advocated for a specific model—and SEC have discussed a model with four guaranteed spots for each conference, two for the Big 12 and ACC, one for the top Group of Five champion and three at-large bids.

Day pointed out that having a system where the top two conferences got four automatic bids would lead to more quality nonconference games because there would be more room to survive a loss.

Ohio State traditionally plays at least one marquee nonconference game and will face Texas during the upcoming season before games against Alabama and Georgia in the next four years. However, plenty of teams do not schedule like that and instead look to avoid losses with easier games to position themselves better in the CFP race.

But nonconference losses wouldn't impact the race for the top four spots in the SEC and Big Ten league standings.

For now, the debate figures to continue during the offseason. And even if the 5+11 format is what happens, the Big Ten and SEC are in position to land the vast majority of the at-large bids given the overall strength and depth of the two leagues.

Still, that isn't stopping Day and others from advocating for more guaranteed spots.