Ohio State HC Ryan Day Explains 'Significant Change' Of No Divisions Big Ten

The Ohio State Buckeyes will play the UCLA Bruins in 2024 for the first time since 2001.

In "The Shawshank Redemption," Brooks Hatlen wrote a letter to his friends back in the penitentiary and told them how "the world went and got itself in a big damn hurry."

That feels sort of like how the college football landscape is rapidly changing. BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and UCF will officially join the Big 12 July 1 and Texas and Oklahoma will move to the Southeastern Conference for 2024.

However, the Ohio State Buckeyes will have a pair of new foes in the Big Ten after next season in USC and UCLA, bringing about a flurry of changes in 2024.

“I think [the Big Ten]’s going to change because of the change with no divisions. That certainly is a significant change," head coach Ryan Day said on Greg McElroy's "Always College Football" Wednesday. "Adding the UCLA and USC component to it with the travel and two very good programs. But, when you add all those into the mix, it’s exciting to think about what the different possibilities are and the two top teams making the Big Ten Championship game in Indy."

The top-two teams in the Big Ten the past two years have been Ohio State and Michigan, which would have set up for a pair of all-time championship game matchups.

The Buckeyes enter each season with three goals: beat Michigan, win the Big Ten title game and the national championship. They haven't achieved the first and second since 2019 nor the third since 2014.

Day said those goals don't change with the Trojans and Bruins joining the Big Ten and the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024, but he emphasized "you want to be playing your best football at the end of the season."

"You want to make sure that you’re in the playoffs, but it’s gonna be important to get a bye," Day said. "That’s going to be a major advantage for the teams that get that week off and let the two other teams play. It’ll be an advantage for the team that hosts in that first round for the ones who don’t get the bye."

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