Ryan Day: College football needs to take a hard look at current calendar

The college football calendar has come into question following the first season of the 12-team College Football Playoff. With this past season ending later than ever before, some believe the current schedule needs to be revised.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, fresh off the first national championship-winning season of his head coaching career, believes the sport may benefit from an earlier start to the regular season.

“I think the first thing is, I think we need to look at the calendar,” Day told Joel Klatt during an appearance on his show Monday. “Starting a new semester for two weeks, and still playing the last season doesn’t really make much sense at all for a lot of reasons. I’m not going to get into all those reasons right now, but we need to take a hard look at that.”

Day did not name specifics, but several causes for concern come to mind. The late-January finish for the Buckeyes kept their undivided attention away from the recruiting trail and the transfer portal. Professional prospects have less time to prepare for the NFL Combine and if they happen to be injured during the postseason, they have less time to recover before pre-draft activities.

For perspective, the 2025 NFL Combine will be held from Thu, Feb 27, 2025 – Sun, Mar 2, 2025. The Buckeyes hoised the College Football Playoff national championship trophy on Jan. 20.

However, the previous season’s championship game was played on Jan. 8 in the four-team model, which is less than a two-week difference.

As the 12-team playoff format becomes the new norm, the number of playoff games across the first round and until the national championship takes roughly a month to finish. To put the title game at exactly Jan. 1 would force college football to begin earlier in the year. With rumors about potentially expanding the playoffs to a 14 or 16-team model also being discussed, the national championship game could potentially get pushed back even further.

Klatt himself has previously commented on the subject, believing the national championship game should be played on New Year’s Day. Traditionally, New Year’s Day has always been a day that heavily features some of the top bowl games in college football each season.

However, in a larger model, that becomes more difficult as the season would have to begin sometime around early to mid-August.

For now, the current 2025 Week 1 college football slate is set for Aug. 30 with the playoffs once again expected to go deep into January for the second-straight year.