The future of College Football Playoff expansion remains one of the more polarizing topics in college athletics, especially in light of growing support for a potential 24-team field among Power Four leaders. And as the Big Ten holds its annual Spring meetings this week in Los Angeles, the head football coaches from two of the league’s most consistent Playoff contenders are publicly backing the controversial plan.
The current 24-team proposal — a straight-forward 23+1 ranking model first put forward by the Big Ten — already has the public backing of the ACC and Big 12, as well as Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua. In fact, only SEC commissioner Greg Sankey currently stands in opposition of the 24-team field becoming reality.
And, in light of some public pushback from college football fans and pundits alike, Ohio State‘s Ryan Day and Oregon‘s Dan Lanning — who have a combined 10 Playoff appearances between them — publicly defended the 24-team Playoff proposal during a conversation from Big Ten Spring Meetings in LA.
“Is it necessarily best for the programs that have been in to say, ‘Hey, let’s invite more?’ No, but is it better?” Lanning told ESPN on Monday. “What’s happened because of the College Football Playoff is every bowl game has been devalued, the end of the season looks completely different. You’re a failure as a coach if you don’t make it to the College Football Playoff.
“It’s going to create more opportunity. Just like March Madness is great in the spring for basketball, it’ll be good for our sport.”
Using the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, which just expanded from 68 to 76 teams beginning next season, might not be the most convincing argument for skeptical college football fans. Much of the pushback has centered around how a 24-team Playoff field would forever alter the way the college football season is structured, including the dissolution of conference championship games, as well as a potential devaluing of the regular season.
But both Day and Lanning see things differently, and even pushed back on the idea that an expanded Playoff wouldn’t lead to teams already comfortably in the 24-team field potentially resting starters late in the regular season.
“Because of how the seeding would work, it’s so valuable,” Lanning told ESPN. “We’re talking about 24 teams. The value of being the first-seeded team is so much more valuable than being fourth, even, that you’re going to want to make sure you put yourself in that position. Could that happen? It could happen. But there’s so many teams in the conversation, one loss can be a huge difference in being [seeded] 1 or 5 or 8.”
Ultimately for Day and Lanning, the Big Ten’s 24-team Playoff model represents the best alternative to the current 12-team model, which is entering just its third season since expanding from its original four-team format. In fact, Day — whose Buckeyes have appeared in five of the last seven Playoffs, including winning it all in 2024 — the larger model would be more inclusive, which is “great for college football in general.”