Ohio State‘s Ryan Day received the kind of praise and recognition that had eluded him for his first five years as the program’s head coach immediately following winning the Buckeyes’ first national title since 2014 and second in the College Football Playoff era.
Just three weeks after his team defeated Notre Dame in the national championship game, the university announced it not only extended Day for the next seven years, but would pay him handsomely. He’ll earn a base salary of $12.5 million, making him the second-highest paid coach by average annual value in the sport. Day trails Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who will clear more than $13 million this year.
The contract is indicative of the tumultuous climate the sport operates in. You’d be hard-pressed to find a 10-year period in college football that has seen as much change as we’ve had from 2014 to 2024 – from the inception of the CFP, to its expansion from four teams to 12, to the invention of the transfer portal, to the move toward immediate eligibility for undergraduate transfers, to the sheer volume of players switching schools during designated transfer portal entries, to the name, image and likeness policies that allow players to profit while still enrolled and playing NCAA athletics, to the amount of money NIL collectives are willing to raise and dole out to keep or procure prize talent, to the implementation of general managers and importance of player personnel departments, to the money pouring in from television rights for games, to the longest season in the sport’s history, and the potential landmark House v. NCAA settlement that will lead to a presumptive salary cap across collegiate athletics while athletic departments satisfy Title IX law.
It’s a long list, but it isn’t exhaustive. It’s something that folks like Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork must consider day and night. With this much change, and change being the only constant in college football, the question isn’t whether Day is worth $12.5 million, but what would be worth it if he chose to leave?
Day’s title is “Ohio State head coach,” but his job has changed. He no longer simply coaches ball. Now, he’s the CEO of the biggest brand in the sport, with more than six million rabid fans expecting to win every game he coaches.
It’s why Day’s record of 70-10 with a national title, two Big Ten titles, four appearances in the CFP in six years, and 12 first-round NFL Draft selections, including at least one in each of the last six years, doesn’t mean as much as four consecutive losses to Michigan — including one last year before reeling off four in a row to win the national title. Even a season of unprecedented success — where the Buckeyes became the first team ever to defeat five top-five opponents and win the national title in the same season — does not inoculate the program from the affliction of attrition.
Broyles Award finalist and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left Ohio State to become the highest-paid coordinator in the country at Penn State. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly left OSU to take the same job with the Las Vegas Raiders. Offensive line coach Justin Frye lost two starters off of his starting five, slid a guard out to left tackle, played four guards across the line, put out a quintet that won the national title and then left for the same job with the Arizona Cardinals.
Day needed to identify individuals capable of replacing those that helped his program win the national title. He’s first to admit he had been interviewing potential hires with an advantage: He is at Ohio State. However, that’s precisely the reason he’ll not get the credit others do.
The Buckeyes, all six million of them, know they’ve got a machine behind Day that is as dependable as an iron shovel in topsoil. This shovel works. What remains to be seen is, does the man wielding it work too?
Following 2024, they got the answer they desired. In 2025, with more change coming, and a fan base that has an insatiable appetite for winning, money isn’t the immovable object in Columbus, Ohio, that it is almost everywhere else. In fact, Buckeye fans might believe money ought to make their football team an unstoppable force. The $12.5 million annually to Day is so everyone knows exactly who to blame when it isn’t.
This is the price. And it will be paid.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.
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