Ohio State coach Ryan Day walked into Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday and did something you don’t see every day from a guy whose team just won a national title. He asked for a higher salary cap.
Not exactly the kind of complaint you expect from someone whose roster just got paid roughly $20 million according to his own athletic director. But Day says the current system is getting squeezed from both ends — there’s a cap on what schools can pay players directly, but there’s no real limit on third-party NIL money. He called it a soft cap, and he doesn’t think it’s working great.
“I think we all would like to see more structure when it comes to the salary cap and then how things are handled above the salary cap,” Day said. “Call it a ‘soft cap.’ I think if you’re talking about that, yeah. Do I think the cap should be higher? Absolutely.”
The numbers are already getting wild
The House settlement lets schools hand out up to $21.3 million to players directly this year. That number jumped from $20.5 million just earlier this month. But programs can still pay more through NIL collectives and third-party deals, which basically means the real spending limits are whatever boosters are willing to cough up.
According to On3’s Pete Nakos, multiple programs are projected to spend over $40 million on roster costs by the 2026 season. That’s nearly double the current soft cap, and it’s happening fast.
Ohio State’s own athletic director Ross Bjork already admitted the 2024 championship team got about $20 million total. That number is likely to skyrocket. Some estimates suggest roster values could more than double in two seasons.
Day didn’t sound worried about the spending. He just wants the rules to actually mean something.
“What does that mean in terms of parity and all that? I don’t know. But I can tell you right now, we want to pay our players and we certainly would like to see that cap go much higher,” Day said.
Is this really about fairness or keeping up?
It’s probably a little of both. Ohio State has money. The Buckeyes are one of the highest-paying programs in the country. But Day seems to recognize that if the cap stays artificially low while NIL spending keeps exploding, you end up with a system where some teams are operating under one set of rules and others are basically doing whatever they want.
That’s not exactly a recipe for competitive balance. And college football already has enough problems with that.
Day basically said the current market is what it is. Costs are going up. Roster expenses are going up. The only question is whether the NCAA and the schools are going to set a realistic number or keep pretending the cap actually limits anything.
The way things are trending, the $21.3 million figure will look cute by 2027.
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