A year ago, the house settlement agreement in college football created a virtual "soft" salary cap for teams, allowing programs to pay up to $20.5 million to players in the form of revenue sharing. That figure has since grown to $21.3 million ahead of the 2026 season.
For some, that's still not enough.
Ohio State Buckeyeshead coach Ryan Day said this past week that he is in favor of a much higher "salary cap" for teams, despite the fact that there currently is not a cap on NIL third-party spending in college football.
“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 told reporters at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. “Call it a ‘soft cap.’ I think if you’re
talking about that, yeah. Do I think the cap should be higher? Absolutely. 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.”
Already, the Buckeyes are one of the teams that is spending the most money on their roster in the nation, with the belief that it is among a handful that have crossed the $40 million mark, and could be approaching $50 million. However, Ohio State is a program that has the resources to spend even more, and if given the opportunity, they will take it.
“If you look at the way it started and where it is now, every year … it’s exponentially gone up higher and higher,” Day said. “Anytime you have sort of an open market every year, you’re going to see that go higher and higher. So when you put a small cap on that, it makes it more and more challenging to compete and do things the right way.”
Contact/Follow@College_Wire on X and@College_Wires on Threads. Like our page onFacebook to follow ongoing coverage of college sports news, notes, and opinions.
This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Ohio State coach Ryan Day calls for major increase in CFB salary cap
