Ohio State coach Ryan Day has come out as a proponent for an “Automatic Qualifier” playoff model that would feature at least four spots for the Big Ten.

Based on what Kirby Smart said in Birmingham last month, the Georgia head coach could understand why Day would feel that way.

“They would not have been in the four (-team playoff),” Smart said, referring to Ohio State finishing sixth in CFP rankings last season, the first year of the expanded playoffs.

“Not only were they in the four, they were in the championship game.”

To Smart’s point, neither Ohio State nor Notre Dame — who met in the CFP Championship Game in January — would have made it into the four-team playoff field with the model utilized between 2014-2023.

The Irish, who beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinal Sugar Bowl in January, had finished No. 5 in the CFP rankings with the Buckeyes No. 6.

This season (2025) is the second year of the 12-team playoff model, and many expect it to be the last, with the playoffs likely expanding to 16 teams the 2026 season.

The Automatic Qualifier playoff model to which Day was referring is one of the two most discussed models being considered moving forward.

“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.”

Ohio State finished in fourth place in the Big Ten last season with a 10-2 record.

The other model many are considering — including the Big 12, ACC and SEC — is the 5-11 model.

Th 5-11 model consists of the Power 4 conference champions receiving automatic bids, along with the top-ranked Group of 5 champion. The other 11 spots are at-large bids and go to the highest-ranked 11 teams remaining.

“It (5-11 model) has always been our first choice,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told ESPN. “It’s fair and rewards on-field performance. I’m not surprised SEC coaches like it.”

Several Big Ten athletic directors, however, have indicated they would not support the 5-11 model if the SEC doesn’t move to a nine-game league schedule, per Yahoo Sports.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey parted from the SEC spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla., in May indicating the league is mulling over both playoffs models as well as whether to go with a nine- or eight-game league slate.

Some SEC coaches, including Smart, seemed to appreciate the flexibility an eight-game league slate provides teams to play strong non-conference competition.

Smart used Georgia’s non-conference game against ACC-champion Clemson as an example, suggesting it was more valuable for the Bulldogs to play than another conference game would have been.

SEC coaches and athletics directors also expressed concern over how teams were ranked by the CFP committee, noting the schedule strength metric did not seem to have been prioritized like executive director Rich Clark had said it would be.

The playoff model discussion will continue, with no immediate decision necessary.

The SEC, meanwhile, must decide on an eight- or nine-game schedule relatively soon.