Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day made a comment after his team's win against Notre Dame in the national championship game that could (and should) lead to a significant change in college football. 

Day told reporters on Tuesday morning that spring practice will likely look a lot different for Ohio State in 2025 because of how many games the Buckeyes played this season. 

"We do have a talented group coming back, and so we'll get back there and try to figure that out," said Day. "I don't know if spring practice is going to look the way that it usually does. I don't think it can, quite honestly, with the amount of games that these guys have played. But for the young guys, we got to get them going and get them indoctrinated into the program, get the offseason going, and then we'll ramp it back up soon." 

Day specifically pointed out that true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who played in 16 games in 2024, needs some "rest" after grinding it out all season. 

Asked about freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, Day said he's obviously a special talent. Day said the #Buckeyes had a plan for Smith and Brian Hartline and his family did a good job putting that plan in action. He said Smith needs some rest.

— Patrick Murphy (@_Pat_Murphy) January 21, 2025

With the 12-team College Football Playoff here to stay (and expansion likely on the horizon at some point), there are going to be more and more teams playing extended schedules. Just this year alone, we saw 13 teams that finished the season ranked inside in the AP Top 25 poll play 14 or more games (more games also equals more time on the practice field during the season). 

There simply needs to be more time between the end of the long college football season and spring practice. In fact, I think it's time to eliminate spring practice altogether. Hopefully Day's comments can lead to that change happening — because it would solve quite a few problems for college football. 

For starters, it would give the players some time to get their bodies completely healthy for the following season. If teams are playing into January, they need more than two months off before returning to the practice field. NFL teams, for example, don't really ramp up until late July when training camp starts. There are rookie minicamps in May and OTAs/minicamps (some of which are voluntary) in late May/early June, but those are mainly for building team chemistry, going through some installs, etc. No one is out there in full pads getting hit. 

NFL teams who play in the Super Bowl in early February, for example, basically get over five months off from actual practices. Teams that don't reach the Super Bowl get even longer. If the NFL is handling is that way, it makes sense for college football to do the same. 

Maybe a short minicamp or OTA style session for college players in early June would make some sense. But otherwise, I think it makes a lot of sense to just do away with spring practices. That would also mean doing away with spring games, but it seems like half the stadiums in college football are undergoing renovations each spring anyway — which makes for some unsightly spring game backdrops. Maybe a late summer "fan fest" type of open scrimmage for programs would be a good idea. 

Player health isn't the only reason why spring practices should be eliminated. It would also help solve the winter transfer portal conundrum. 

The current winter transfer window process isn't sustainable. There's just too much going on in December with the early signing period, coaching changes, the playoff, and then incoming and outgoing transfers. It's a lot. 

If spring practices are eliminated, there would be no need for a winter transfer window. 

In an ideal world, players would finish the spring semester at the school where they played in the fall (unless they're a graduate transfer) and then a spring window (which would be the only transfer window) would open in May. 

This would give players more time to make decisions (maybe the winter months could be some sort of legal tampering period where players are allowed to take visits…there are a myriad of possibilities that could make sense) and coaches would have several months — instead of several weeks — to evaluate their rosters, meet with players, and make decisions. 

Eliminating spring practices and the winter transfer portal would also make it tougher for players to make an immediate impact for a team, since they'd be going through practices with their new team for the first time in late summer. Maybe that would curb some of the portal entries (the portal can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing, depending on the situation…plenty of players over the last couple of years would've been better off staying put instead of jumping into the portal). 

Will any of this happen? 

I don't know. I don't think anyone knows what the future holds for college football. 

But I do know that it would undoubtedly be better for student-athletes and overworked coaches. 

Ryan Day gives Tennessee Vols a compliment while suggesting that Ohio State had the ‘best run in the history of college football’

It was quite a run by the Buckeyes