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Ryan Day makes Ohio State’s case to earn spot in College Football Playoff
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The College Football Playoff rankings for Week 16 were dropped last night and the uproar was touched off again, but Ohio State coach Ryan Day thinks his fourth-ranked Buckeyes are about where they ought to be.
The playoff committee appeared to offer massive favoritism to big, brand name schools with multiple losses at the expense of undefeated mid-major programs like Coastal Carolina and Cincinnati, adding evidence to the pile that suggest the CFP is nothing but a massive television money maker built for the big schools to compete.
The Buckeyes, who are undefeated but have only played five games to the other schools ten, appear to be one of the big beneficiaries of that system. If the season ended today Ohio State would make the field of four, which means in essence that if they beat Northwestern Saturday in the Big Ten Championship, the Buckeyes would make the field at just 6-0.
The other three current selections are 10-0 Alabama, 10-0 Notre Dame, and 9-1 Clemson. The Buckeyes would look odd in that group at 6-0 and in certain ways enter the game with an advantage in health and stamina because of the lack of beatings levied on their bodies in five fewer games.
But coach Day, to the surprise of no one, is taking the opposite angle, saying the Buckeyes have dealt with more challenges than other teams, including having games against Michigan and Maryland cancelled by the other side, while opting not to play a beleaguered Illinois team because of star players being benched by Covid-19 protocols.
Day was quoted in a Tweet by Eleven Warriors reporter Colin Hass-Hill claiming the Buckeyes deserve to be in because they, “can play with anybody in the country. If some people can’t see that, then that’s their problem.”
Ryan Day makes the pitch for Ohio State in the CFP, saying the Buckeyes can "play with anybody in the country." Also mentions he believes they've dealt with more challenges than other teams.
— Colin Hass-Hill (@chasshill) December 16, 2020
Ends it with this: "If some people can't see that, then that's their problem."
If being able to play with anybody—and not the best resume of success over the course of an approximately equal season—is the criteria for making the playoff, then Ohio State is likely in. It appears the CFP has cooked it up so that’s going to be the case, anyway. The real question driving the CFP rankings is simply this: What games will the largest television audience want to watch, and little else.
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.