Ryan Day predicts college football will have overall governing body one day

From where Ryan Day sits, it’s only a matter of time before some centralized governing body for college football comes into existence. He’s just not going to be in the business of predicting when or how it will come to be.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt, Day discussed the contemporary lack of central leadership in college football. The Ohio State head man doesn’t see the current, Balkanized setup as sustainable.

“I think we know what the challenges are. People come from different points of view. Different parts of the country. And when there’s different rules in place, different numbers of conference games, there’s a lot of things that come into play,” Day said.

He pointed to the disjointed decision-making that led to different conferences playing at different times during the 2020 Covid-altered season.

While the Big Ten and Pac-12 had made the decision to not play football initially, other conferences pushed ahead.

It made the stark contrasts in leadership and decision-making processes evident. Day hopes the lesson of Covid is that a centralized leadership structure helps create a unified response the next time a big, unexpected crisis hits.

“So the more we can start to get down that road, the better chance we have of starting to come together. I think we saw that during Covid. You know, the Big Ten cancelled their season, Pac-12 cancelled their season. Other folks were playing. At that moment, that was an opportunity to recognize the fact that when big things come down the tube, we have to respond. And you could kind of see how we were a little segmented at that moment,” Day said.

Day is ultimately hopeful that the breakdowns across leagues in 2020 can be an animating moment to have some sort of governing body in place in the near future.

“I think eventually there’s a great chance that something like that could happen. I think that when you look at structures that are out there, that compete in this type of environment, that’s typically what happens,” Day said.

Day also hopes whoever is in charge leaves the college football calendar alone for the time being

The college football calendar has, for the most part, become an unrelenting onslaught for coaches, staffers and even players. Day is not exempt from this nearly year-round grind.

But for all the foibles and shortcomings of the current calendar, Day would leave it alone for the time being. He explained why while speaking with Klatt.

“I’m a firm believer, that when we make a change, we don’t see really the ramifications of that decision for about three to four years down the road. And every time we make a change, it creates a whole ‘nother set of issues. And so we quickly adapt. And when you’re talking about the most competitive environment in the world, then guys are going to figure out ways to gain competitive advantages. So while I agree with you, it puts a lot of stress on December,” Day said.