Why Ryan Day’s Agreement With Tony Petitti on the College Football Playoff Format Signals a New Era for the Big Ten
Ohio State’s Ryan Day echoes Tony Petitti’s comments on the College Football Playoff format, and in doing so, he’s adding his voice to a growing chorus of Big Ten leaders advocating for fairness, balance, and strategic consideration as the sport prepares to enter its most significant structural evolution in decades. With the expanded 12-team playoff set to begin, Day’s alignment with Petitti isn’t just about format preference — it’s about protecting the interests of the Big Ten, asserting competitive equity, and making sure college football’s most powerful programs have a real and fair shot at winning national titles.
The playoff expansion, long anticipated and debated, is poised to change the landscape of the sport. Gone are the days of four teams being hand-picked by a selection committee. Starting in the 2025 season, 12 teams will enter the bracket — including the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large bids. This new structure opens up the postseason, giving more teams access to meaningful games and fans more reasons to stay invested deeper into the year. It also introduces new complications — among them, how to seed teams, where to play games, and how to reward or penalize certain paths through the season.
Tony Petitti, the new Big Ten Commissioner, has been vocal about his concerns regarding certain elements of the format — particularly the idea that a team could go undefeated in the Big Ten, one of the toughest conferences in the country, and still be forced to play a first-round game while other conference champions receive a bye. Under the current rules, only the top four highest-ranked conference champions receive byes, meaning that even a second-ranked Big Ten team — say, Ohio State or Michigan — could be playing an extra game in the first round while a lower-ranked champion from a weaker conference skips straight to the quarterfinals.
Ryan Day agrees with that criticism. When asked about the format and Petitti’s comments, Day didn’t mince words. He said that it’s crucial for the sport to reward the right things — not just titles, but strength of schedule, consistency, and the caliber of competition. Day, who has navigated some of the most competitive seasons in modern college football and experienced both the agony of being left out and the pressure of being included, understands exactly how slim the margins are. His support of Petitti’s stance reveals how coaches and administrators are working in unison to ensure the playoff doesn’t become just another imbalance favoring weaker leagues.
For Day and Ohio State, the concern is not theoretical. The Big Ten is about to become a mega-conference, absorbing powerhouse programs like USC, Oregon, Washington, and UCLA. Every week will be a test. A team could go 11-1 or even 12-0 and still be staring at a #5 seed, without a bye, simply because they didn’t win the Big Ten title game — possibly by a single possession. Meanwhile, a team from the ACC or another weaker Power Five league could finish 10-3, win a conference title, and leapfrog into a bye week. To Day, that defies logic.
This isn’t just about competitive advantage, though. It’s about player health and roster management. Day emphasized that extra games — especially against top-tier opponents — carry a real cost. Injuries pile up. Depth is tested. Fatigue becomes a factor. A first-round game could mean the difference between winning and surviving. By the time a team reaches the semifinal, they may be limping in while another team is fresher, healthier, and better rested. In a sport where a single injury to a quarterback or a key defensive back can swing a game, that matters.
What Day and Petitti are pushing for is a reconsideration of how merit is defined. Conference championships are important — no one disputes that. But they shouldn’t be the sole metric. In an expanded playoff world, there needs to be more nuance. Strength of schedule, head-to-head matchups, and overall resume must count for something, even if a team finishes second in its division. Otherwise, the system will end up punishing the very programs that are carrying the sport in terms of viewership, competitiveness, and talent development.
And that’s the underlying message in all of this — the Big Ten is positioning itself not just as a conference, but as a co-leader of the sport alongside the SEC. These aren’t complaints from the middle of the pack. These are the demands of elite programs who know they’ll be in the playoff conversation every year and who want the format to reflect the true power balance in college football. Day’s support of Petitti makes clear that Ohio State intends to be at the table for every major conversation — not just as a participant, but as a stakeholder.
There’s also a strategic layer here. Coaches like Day are already planning how to navigate the playoff under this new system. Scheduling will change. How teams manage depth and rotations will evolve. Recruiting pitches will shift — players will want to know how many playoff games they’ll play, how often they’ll be featured on national TV, and how their careers will be impacted by the postseason structure. Day is preparing Ohio State to lead in this new environment, and that means fighting for a system that rewards the kind of grueling season his team faces in the Big Ten.
Petitti’s broader message has also touched on media rights, travel demands, and academic calendars — all of which are factors that must be considered in any long-term format. Day supports those concerns as well, particularly the challenges of travel in a playoff format that may send Midwest teams across the country for multiple weeks in December and January. For a team like Ohio State, which prides itself on doing things the right way both on and off the field, that matters. The logistics aren’t just annoying — they’re consequential.
This alignment between coach and commissioner is a powerful signal of where college football is heading. For too long, decisions about format and structure have been made by committees or driven by TV executives with little input from those actually navigating the schedule week to week. That’s changing. Coaches like Day are demanding a seat at the table. They want formats that are competitive but fair, challenging but equitable. And they want consistency — in how teams are judged, how games are rewarded, and how postseason paths are paved.
Day’s comments also reflect his evolution as a head coach. When he first took over for Urban Meyer, he was focused almost entirely on team development, recruiting, and Xs and Os. But in the years since, he’s grown into a national voice — someone who understands the politics, economics, and structural intricacies of the sport. His support for Petitti is an extension of that leadership. It shows he’s not just preparing the Buckeyes for a season — he’s thinking about the long-term success of the program and its place in the national landscape.
At the same time, this isn’t just about Ohio State. The implications of this conversation extend to Michigan, Penn State, USC, Oregon, and other Big Ten contenders. If the playoff format remains skewed toward rewarding only conference champions, it could lead to absurd scenarios — like a 12-1 team that beat four top-15 opponents being forced to play a 9-4 Group of Five champion that hasn’t played a ranked team all year. That’s not good for the sport. That’s not good for fans. And it’s certainly not good for the players who shoulder the physical and emotional toll of championship-level football.
So what comes next? The format for 2025 is technically locked in, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to pressure. If enough voices — coaches, ADs, media members, and yes, commissioners — push for changes, there’s still time to tweak the details. Petitti has already begun those conversations. And with Ryan Day joining the chorus, the message is getting louder. The system needs to reflect reality. It needs to reward performance over paper titles. And it needs to create a pathway that’s as fair to Ohio State as it is to anyone else.
For Buckeye fans, this moment is encouraging. It shows their coach is engaged, thoughtful, and unafraid to speak out on the bigger issues. It shows the program isn’t just reacting to the changing sport — it’s trying to shape it. And it shows that when the stakes are high, Ryan Day is willing to go beyond the sideline and into the arena where rules are written and legacies are shaped.
In the end, Day’s agreement with Petitti isn’t just a press quote. It’s a signal of unity, a strategic stance, and a challenge to the system. If the playoff is going to expand, it must evolve with wisdom. And if college football is going to thrive in its new era, it must do so with balance, vision, and fairness — values that Day and Ohio State are determined to defend.
