COLUMBUS, Ohio — After winning the first 12-team College Football Playoff and a national title as an at-large selection in 2024, Ohio State coach Ryan Day would like to see future models include at least four automatic qualifying spots for the expanded Big Ten.

As college football leaders discuss the next version of the CFP, beginning with the 2026 season, there has been recent pushback against templates that include more automatic spots for the Big Ten and the SEC.

At last week’s SEC spring meetings, support grew for a model that included automatic entries for the top five conference champions and 11 at-large spots in a playoff that would expand from 12 to 16 teams next year. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and league administrators last week also voiced support for the 5+11 CFP model.

The Big Ten has not publicly advocated for a specific playoff model, but it has discussed one that would automatically include four teams for the Big Ten and for the SEC, two each for the Big 12 and ACC, and one for the top Group of 5 champion. The Big 12 and the ACC opposed that plan.

“We’re in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country,” Day told ESPN. “I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers.”

Day noted how the most recent Big Ten expansion added the top teams from the original Pac-12, including the only two — Oregon and Washington — that made the four-team CFP and played for national titles. Washington reached the championship game after the 2023 season, falling to Michigan, and Oregon won the Big Ten last fall and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the CFP, losing to Ohio State in a quarterfinal matchup at the Rose Bowl.

“You would have had at least a team or two [in the CFP] from out there,” Day said, referring to the original Pac-12. “So it only makes sense when you have 18 teams, especially the quality of teams that you would have [in] that many teams representing the Big Ten.”

Day added that a CFP model with more automatic spots will benefit the sport because it will incentivize stronger nonconference scheduling, especially given the discrepancies in conference scheduling models.

“We’re in the Big Ten, and we have 18 teams and some of the best programs in the country. I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers [in a 16-team CFP model].”

Ohio State coach Ryan Day

Big Ten and Big 12 teams play nine league games per season, while SEC and ACC teams play eight. Ohio State reached last year’s CFP with two regular-season league losses, but it also didn’t face a Power 4 opponent in nonleague play. Michigan won the final national title of the four-team CFP without playing a Power 4 nonconference opponent.

The Buckeyes open the 2025 season by hosting Texas, last year’s SEC runner-up and a team they defeated in a CFP semifinal matchup at the Cotton Bowl.

“If you don’t have those automatic qualifiers, you’re less likely to play a game like we’re playing this year against Texas, because it just won’t make sense,” Day said. “If we do, then you’re more likely to do that, because we play nine conference games in the Big Ten. The SEC doesn’t. So it’s not equal.”

Both Ohio State and national runner-up Notre Dame played 16 games last season, a number that will become the norm with an ever-expanding playoff. Day said his team, which played its best during the CFP run, benefited from a larger roster, with him noting that roster limits of 105 following the impending House-NCAA settlement will provide challenges.

“I’m concerned about 16 or 17 games with a 105-man roster,” Day said. “With 120, it’s about maxed out. You have to stay healthy, and all it takes are a couple injuries during that long of a run. But in the NFL, you can hire somebody off of waivers. In college football, you can’t. I’m concerned about the length of the season with 105.”

Ohio State will host Navy in the 2029 season opener for both teams, the schools announced Wednesday.

The Sept. 1, 2029, game will be the first meeting between the teams since 2014 and the sixth overall in the series. The Buckeyes have won all five previous matchups.

The game was one of three changes Ohio State made to future nonconference schedules that will affect the 2029 and 2030 seasons. To add the Navy game, Ohio State and Nevada agreed to move their previously scheduled game on that date to Sept. 7, 2030.

Ohio State also added a nonconference game against Youngstown State, which will be played at Ohio Stadium on Sept. 15, 2029. The Buckeyes have one nonconference game to fill out their schedule over the next five years: the season opener on Aug. 31, 2030.

In the 2014 matchup, a 34-17 Ohio State win in Baltimore, Navy trailed 20-17 in the fourth quarter before Ezekiel Elliott scored on a 10-yard touchdown run to put the Buckeyes up 10 and Michael Thomas scored on a 9-yard touchdown pass from J.T. Barrett that put the game away.

Ohio State would go on to post a 14-1 record and defeat Oregon 42-20 in the Rose Bowl to win the College Football Playoff.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — J Batt said Michigan State has a top-10 athletic department in the country.

The school’s next athletic director made it clear that the football program must lead the way to make his statement ring true.

The Spartans have been shaky in recent years in the sport that pays the bills in college athletics, losing seven games last year in coach Jonathan Smith’s debut season.

“It comes down to resources and across the board, we will provide him and his staff with resources,” Batt said Wednesday when he was formally introduced.

Batt left Georgia Tech, where he was its athletic director since the fall of 2022, to take on the challenge of raising money and turning around a football program in the highly competitive Big Ten.

The university’s Board of Trustees, which approved the selection, is scheduled to vote on Batt’s hiring on June 13 and his first day on the job is June 16. Batt replaces Alan Haller, whose last day was May 11.

Batt helped Georgia Tech bounce back in football.

He hired coach Brent Key, who led the program to consecutive bowl games for the first time in a decade and earned a spot in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in nine years.

In Batt’s first season at Georgia Tech, 14 of 17 teams were in a postseason tournament.

Before leading Georgia Tech’s athletic department, he was executive deputy athletic director at Alabama and served as chief operating officer and chief revenue officer in the athletic department.

Izzo reached out to his friend, former Alabama and Michigan State coach Nick Saban, as part of the school’s search.

“Nick had great comments about him,” Izzo said.

Batt recalled Saban speaking so fondly about Michigan State.

“He’s always been so positive about this place,” Batt said.

Batt also worked in athletics at East Carolina, Maryland, James Madison, William & Mary and North Carolina, where he played on the 2011 national championship soccer team.

Batt is regarded as a strong fundraiser, an asset for any athletic department in this era of college athletics.

At Michigan State, his top priorities will be to raise money and help the football program win.

Universities will be allowed to share up to $20.5 million in revenue with athletes next year. Direct payments will be in addition to third-party name, image and likeness deals facilitated by school-affiliated collectives.

“We’re going to be extremely successful and competitive in that space,” Batt said.