Ryan Day shares his approach to handling change in college football

The college football landscape is changing. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is doing his best to keep up with the odd times.

Coming off the heels of COVID, the NCAA introduced the transfer portal and NIL. While these new avenues have benefitted countless players, they can create a whirlwind of issues for coaches. Day gave his take on the complicated situation.

“We have to try to do the best we can to bring everybody together in the sport. I think when different conferences come from different points of view, that’s a challenge. But when everybody can come together as one, I think that gives us the best chance.

“College football, the way it is right now, there are no precedents. There’s no benchmark. There’s nothing really to compare it to. I think we have to do something to get ourselves somewhat in line with some sort of a structure,” Day said on a recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show: Big Noon Conversations.”

NCAA president Charlie Baker has addressed these issues already. Baker’s goal for NIL seems to create a uniform national law on the topic, preventing schools in one state from having an advantage over schools across the country.

During the CWS in June, Baker discussed his hopes for NIL.

“A lot of the focus is on Name, Image, and Likeness,” Baker said. “And the fact that it would be really nice if the thing had some transparency and accountability to it. I heard that, by the way, as much from student-athletes and families as I heard about it with schools. We’re certainly going to try to get that done with Congress.”

Baker has visited Congress and says he hopes to Congress passes a bill by 2024 regarding NIL, but he can only control so much. Coaches like Day have even less power over the situation. The Buckeyes head coach believes the NCAA should consider the NFL an example for its financial model.

“We have the model right there. It’s right there. I think people are hesitant to say that because we are collegiate, and it is college athletics, but these guys have been doing it for a long time, and they know what they’re doing.

“They have collective bargaining agreements, they have players associations in place, they have a playoff system in place. They have so many things that we could grab onto,” Day said. “The more times we can look to them for how they’ve solved some of these issues, it’s going to be important.”

For now, Day must adapt the best he can to his circumstances. Ohio State will open its season on Sept. 2 against Indiana.