Ohio State Buckeyes Coach Ryan Day Weighs in on Impact of Conference Titles in College Football Playoff

Ryan Day said he understands the importance of playing for a conference title, but missing it should not hurt the Ohio State Buckeyes, whom are consistently at the top of the Big Ten.

Ohio State Buckeyes coach Ryan Day gave his take on the importance of conference title games on making the College Football Playoff (CFP) during a press conference on Sunday.

The Buckeyes helmsman has acknowledged the importance of having a conference championship game, but said it should include the best two teams in the league for that given year.

"I know that the conference championship game means a lot to the league," Day said. "But when it comes down to it, I think you have to consider what that means when you're one of the top two teams in the conference and then you're playing each other for that moment."

This stance makes sense for a coach like Day, whose team is part of a tough divisional dilemma, unlike others in the country. Ohio State is consistently one of the two best teams in the Big Ten, but they share the conference's East division with the other top squad: the Michigan Wolverines.

Almost every year, the winner of the Big Ten East is determined in the final weekend of the regular season, when the Buckeyes and Wolverines face one another. The winner goes on to represent the division in the Big Ten Championship, while the loser is forced to cross their fingers at home, hoping they can still make it into the CFP.

Ohio State has lost its last three meetings with Michigan and has thus missed out on the most recent trio of Big Ten Championship games. Fulfilling the aforementioned formula, the Wolverines have won the previous three Big Ten titles after defeating the Buckeyes.

Luckily for Day and Ohio State, this season marked the end of divisions in the Big Ten Conference, meaning the top two teams will compete for a title regardless of their previous divisional placement. This new format does not take anything from the historic rivalry between the Buckeyes and Wolverines but does make Day's vision of what a conference championship game should be a reality.