Ryan Day wants to see improvements made to the player experience for College Football Playoff games.
Ohio State was one of the first teams in college football, along with Notre Dame, to experience traveling to three CFP games in a row as the Buckeyes played Oregon in the Rose Bowl, Texas in the Cotton Bowl and the Fighting Irish in the national championship game. And while Ohio State navigated that path better than anyone else, winning all three of those games along with a first-round home game vs. Tennessee to win the first 12-team CFP, Day believes the CFP and its bowl games can do a better job of providing the best possible experience for players.
While going to bowl games used to mean participating in a week’s worth of events before playing the game, that’s no longer the case for teams in the CFP as they keep their focus on trying to win a national championship. And Day thinks the CFP and its respective bowls can help teams perform at their best by making adjustments to the accommodations they provide for the teams.
“The experience is something we’ve really got to learn from. You know, I think that the player experience can be much better,” Day said in an appearance on “The Triple Option” podcast. “I think that the focus needs to be on the players. And I think we need to look at a lot of it.
“The national championship is not run by a bowl. The other ones are, but even the ones that are run by a bowl, as you guys remember, there used to be events. There was a lot that came with that. Now that’s no longer the case. It’s just like being on a road game except you’re there a day earlier, but there’s no events, like nobody going on any events, nobody’s leaving the hotel. I think that we need to consider moving the hotels outside of these big cities, because we’re not going to these events anymore, so I think being a little bit more secluded and looking at some of those locations is just better for everybody, especially for the players again. And I think that we need to pour into the players.
“These are the guys that are doing the work. So I think that we need the best food there is that can possibly be served to these guys. I think it should be the best conditions. I think we should try to find as many mementos for these guys that possibly can be done, just little things that money can’t buy, but it stays with them forever.”
