Ryan Day shares how he learned UCLA joined the Big Ten while golfing with Chip Kelly

Ohio State coach Ryan Day shared the hilarious true story behind how he and UCLA‘s Chip Kelly found out about the Big Ten move while golfing. Day shared the details while appearing on the Big Ten Network after Wednesday’s Big Ten media days appearances — explaining that the reported story from earlier in the day was mostly true.

It was previously reported that Day leaned out of his golf cart and shouted to Kelly that they were now conference rivals, when both coaches actually learned the news from their wives while on the course together.

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Ryan Day on learning Chip Kelly was a conference rival

The relationship between Day and Kelly stretches further back than most coaching relationships in the sport can imagine — with Day playing quarterback for the New Hampshire Wildcats during Kelly’s first season as a college offensive coordinator in 1999.

When the bombshell announcement came through that UCLA and USC were leaving the Pac-12 Conference to join the Big Ten Conference, the pair were actually golfing on the same course. While Day didn’t shout out to Kelly that they were now in the same conference, both coaches did learn about the move from the same source within minutes of each other.

“Didn’t play out exactly like that but pretty close,” laughed Day. “We’re up playing at his golf tournament, and he was actually in the group ahead of us. So we tee off and we drive up and both of our wives are at the turn there … and so they’re there and handing out waters to people.

“And so they say, ‘you realize what just happened?’ I said no. They said, ‘you know you guys are in the same conference now.’ I go, ‘what?!’ They go, ‘yeah, Chip just drove off. We told him and now we’re telling you.’

“So the truth is, our wives told us that this was going on. We quickly got calls from Gene and I think Chip got a call from Martin and we found out and we’re excited. So we started off the round in different conferences [and] we end in the same conference.”