The pressure is on in Ohio State. All $20 million dollars worth.

No team has spent more in NIL money than Ohio State. No coach in the country has heard more calls for his canning than Ryan Day. No team has more to lose, or more to prove, in the first ever expanded college football playoffs. 

“We’re still breathing, we’re still alive,” Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork said last week, per ESPN. “The season’s not over. The book is not closed.”

It only felt that way after Ohio State’s abomination against unranked Michigan in the final week of regular season play.

Ohio State managed just 252 yards and ten points on the day, as signal caller Will Howard finished with 175 yards, one touchdowns and two interceptions. 

For every punch thrown, the Buckeyes took two more. To the face.

It was such a paltry performance that even Ohio’s lawmakers felt compelled to step in and intervene.

That this was the same Ohio State team that was 10-1 coming into the rivalry week matchup, the same team that had taken down both fifth-ranked Indiana and third-ranked Penn State just a few weeks prior, seemed unfathomable. 

And no one took the defeat more personally than the head coach.

“Other than losing my father and a few other things, like it’s quite honestly, for my family, the worst thing that’s happened,” Day told WBNS, a Columbus-based TV station.

And in past seasons, it would have been a death blow for the Buckeyes’ season but with the playoff expanding from four to twelve teams national title hopes remain.

If Ohio State can prevail over the Volunteers on Saturday, the sting of the Michigan debacle will be greatly reduced.

And if the Buckeyes can take down the last remaining undefeated FBS team in the Ducks a week later, the calls for Day’s job will be a distant memory.

Ohio State entered the 2024 season with their sights set on a national championship. Considering the star-studded roster that reportedly commanded $20 million in NIL funding, the most in the country, anything less would be an underachievement. 

And for Day, who has had to contend with the accusations that neither he nor his teams are built to win the big games throughout all six of his full seasons at the program’s helm, the noise has never been louder. 

But the season is not over. The book is not closed. 

Saturday is a new day.