Ohio State head coach Ryan Day earned the No. 3 spot in CBS Sports’ top 25 Power Four head coach rankings ahead of the 2026 season.
Day finished just behind Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, who surged 20 spots to claim the No. 1 ranking after leading the Hoosiers to a national title in 2026, and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who slipped one spot to No. 2. Both Day and Smart fell one spot from their 2025 rankings.
Day was not ranked lower than three by any of the 10 voters, but did not receive a single vote as the top head coach in college football.
CBS Sports’ evaluation of Day highlighted both Ohio State’s accomplishments in 2025 and the frustration surrounding its season-ending losses, though the outlet still viewed Day as one of the nation’s top coaches.
“Ohio State was unable to follow up its national title with another in 2025. The Buckeyes finished 12-2 overall and went 9-0 in conference play before falling to eventual national champion Indiana in the conference title game,” CBS Sports writer Tom Fornelli wrote. “They were also upset in their lone playoff game by the Miami team that would also lose to Indiana. So while Day finally got over that Michigan hump, nobody at Ohio State will ever be happy about finishing the season on a two-game losing streak. Given what he’s accomplished through his entire career, though, nobody on our panel even thought about ranking him lower than third. That said, Day didn’t garner a single first-place vote after picking some up last year.”
Day has an 82-12 record as a head coach, claiming back-to-back Big Ten Championships in 2019 and 2020 and one national title in 2024. Day’s .872 winning percentage ranks him second in college football history, only to longtime Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne (.881).
Rounding out the top 10 head coaches was No. 4 Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame), No. 5 Dan Lanning (Oregon), No. 6 Steve Sarkisian (Texas), No. 7 Mario Cristobal (Miami), No. 8 Kalen DeBoer, No. 9 Lane Kiffin (LSU) and No. 10 Kyle Whittingham (Michigan).
Multiple other Big Ten schools also cracked the top 25, including Penn State’s Matt Campbell at No. 16, USC’s Lincoln Riley at No. 17, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz at No. 20 and Illinois’ Bret Bielema at No. 25. Former Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin landed the No. 13 spot with Virginia Tech.
Alongside Cignetti, several other coaches made major jumps in the rankings, including Houston’s Willie Fritz, who climbed 23 spots to No. 18, and Joey McGuire of Texas Tech, who was the biggest riser after leaping 27 spots to No. 21. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney had the biggest fall of any coach, dropping eight spots from No. 3 in 2025 to right outside the top 10 at No. 11 in 2026.
