While conventional wisdom is that an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff will lead to a diminished regular season as it’s now easier for a team to make the playoff field, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day thinks it actually could lead to some better regular season matchups.
During a recent press conference, Ryan Day pointed out that with more margin for error for teams to lose early in the season and still make the playoff, that will make it more likely for teams to want to schedule more difficult non-conference opponents.
“Yeah, I think now that you have a 12-team playoff for sure it does,” Day said according to On3. “I think that’s probably the biggest change. You know, coming forward is that you know, those games are going to matter, but at the same time, you can build up your team and you can learn from your team by challenging your team with non-conference opponents like that.
“But also knowing that you’ll have an opportunity to possibly make the 12-team as opposed to just the Final Four.”
Currently, the margin for error for teams is much smaller. After all, Ohio State’s only loss on the season was to the top-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings by one score on the road, and the Buckeyes had no real chance of getting into the field. Next season, that’s going to change.
[On3]
