Ryan Day holds off hot seat talk by beating Penn State for now, but will it last?

We have to give credit where it is due. Ryan Day never flinched in Ohio State's huge road date at rival Penn State. Although the Buckeyes may have been a slight favorite, they did enough to come out of State College with an impressive Week 10 victory over the Nittany Lions. Ohio State and Penn State may have the same 7-1 record, but the Buckeyes now own the head-to-head tiebreaker in the Big Ten.

While Penn State head coach James Franklin is currently under fire, Day can briefly exhale, knowing that his job is not on the line after Week 10's performance. Of course, the praise we are giving Day this weekend could be fleeting with two huge games coming up vs. Indiana and arch-rival Michigan. Although the Wolverines are a shell of themselves, this is the best Indiana football team of all time.

For Ohio State to make it to the Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes need to win out. This would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker over both Penn State and Indiana. Even losing the head-to-head tiebreaker to Oregon in Eugene will not matter. The only thing that matters for Ohio State is winning two of its final three games. Getting to 10-2 will likely be good enough.

Then again, expectations are different at Ohio State. Nobody faced more pressure from the start than Day.

Ryan Day finds himself off the hot seat, but could put himself back on it

To me, I don't think losing to Indiana should put him back on the hot seat quite to the extent of losing to Michigan for the fourth year in a row. The Hoosiers are pummeling teams this season. IU might be good enough to not only get to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship, but beat Oregon and end up with the No. 1 seed. You can continue to sleep on this team, but do it at your own peril. Indiana is legit and very much a playoff lock already.

Barring something unforeseen, I would venture to guess that Ohio State would make it in at 10-2 (7-2) because it would have two understandable losses and at least one high-quality win. 9-3 (6-3) is not going to be good enough, nor should it be tolerated. That is the only reasonable way I could come to grips with Ohio State moving on from Day. He cannot lose to Indiana and Michigan, miss the playoff and keep his job.

Frankly, anything short of missing the expanded College Football Playoff should not be tolerated, especially if a fourth straight loss to Michigan is what keeps Ohio State out. Entering the season, Ohio State was one of four certain playoff locks alongside Georgia, Oregon and Texas. What would that mean if Ohio State was the only one of those four not part of the 12-team playoff this January?

At this point, it would have to take a complete meltdown for Day to be fired, but it would be merited.