Ryan Day says Big Ten having two playoff teams is 'very important'

This year’s edition of the College Football Playoff featured two Big Ten teams, Michigan and Ohio State, for the first time. Previously, the SEC was the only conference to get two teams in at once.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day did not mince words about the big deal having two teams from the conference playing for it all this postseason. Michigan won its second straight Big Ten title and was 13-0 on the year going into Saturday while Ohio State finished 11-1 and snuck in.

The Buckeyes’ lone loss was to Michigan, this year’s No. 2 seed which takes on TCU.

“I think it’s very important for the conference to have two teams in the CFP, and I think the level of play in the Big Ten has improved over my time as the head coach,” Day said.

Ohio State was in this position before, as well as Michigan last year. But this is the first time both schools made it at the same time. Comparatively, Alabama and Georgia made it simultaneously in multiple seasons.

Georgia won the national title last season over the Crimson Tide after the teams beat Michigan and Cincinnati, respectively. But now, the Big Ten gets its shot and has a 50-50 chance of getting itself a national champion in mid-January.

“Week in and week out, you have to bring it, and the challenge is that you play nine conference games in the Big Ten,” Day said. “There’s very good coaches, very good players. They’re a very physical conference. So you have to be able to sustain throughout November because of the nine conference games, and for some teams, they play a non-conference. That’s really ten conference games that you play.

“With the physicality of the conference, I think, it’s deserving to have two teams in the CFP.”

Ohio State snuck in as the No. 4 seed after USC lost the Pac-12 Championship Game. The 11-1 Buckeyes take on the No. 1 seed and defending national champion Bulldogs.

“I’ve just been really pleased with the way our team has worked over the last month,” Day said on College GameDay. “The preparation they put in to get to this point, the focus has been on Georgia. There’s certainly been a lot of noise and a lot of things that we’ve learned, but the focus has been on preparing for this game and it started back in Columbus, and continued down here in Atlanta. Gonna be a long day here as we prepare to play in this game, we’ve been waiting for what feels like forever to play this game, but our guys are very, very excited, great energy about them. 

“And the great thing is all that matters is what goes on in the field. And I know there’s been a lot of people that are not giving us a chance to win this game, but I can tell you the guys are really excited about playing.”