Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark had the mic first, and he took advantage of it.
Big 12 Media Days opened Tuesday at the Dallas Cowboys global headquarters in Frisco, Texas. This is the first among the Power 4 conferences – and Yormark wasted little time offering his opinion on College Football Playoff expansion and the Big 12’s place among the major conferences.
"I fully expect the Big 12 to earn multiple College Football Playoff bids this year and to show once again we can compete with anybody," Yormark said Tuesday.
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Can the conference back that up? That will be an indicator about their place in the pecking order with the SEC, Big Ten and ACC – which were multiple-bid leagues in 2024. Yormark had thoughts on that, too.
"Speaking of the CFP, we continue to believe the 5/11 model proposed by the Big 12 and ACC is the right playoff model for college football," Yormark said. "We want to earn it on the field. We do not need a professional model, because we are not the NFL. We are college football, and we must act like it."
That’s a strong take. Yet getting multiple CFP bids – and perhaps a national championship contender – would give the conference more clout in those discussions about playoff expansion and beyond. That is the pressure point for the Big 12 with the next College Football Playoff expansion looming,
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Yormark took over as Big 12 commissioner in 2022 – a year after Texas and Oklahoma accepted an invitation to join the SEC. Yormark helped expedite that departure, and the conference has expanded to 16 teams with an "open for business" mantra that last added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12.
"Looking ahead, our focus remains on thriving in this new era of college athletics. Strengthening our football product remains essential," Yormark said.
Yormark has endorsed what a college football conference should be – a parity-based model that is competitive from top to bottom. The Big 12 had four teams finish 7-2 in conference play last season in Arizona State, Iowa State, BYU and Colorado.
"I believe we will be the deepest football conference in America. No league offers the competitive balance that we do," Yormark said.
On Tuesday, Yormark pointed out the conference had the most fourth-quarter lead changes and go-ahead scores in the final minute last season. In 2025, the conference will have the most returning starting quarterbacks among the Power 4 conferences — including the 10 quarterbacks who ranked second through 11th behind Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders in passing yards last season.
Few thought any of this was possible when the Longhorns and Sooners left. Yormark continues to emphasize that the Big 12 will intersect sports, culture and business for its own identity.
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Brett Yormark favors 5/11 CFP model
The College Football Playoff continues to weigh its options with a possible expansion from 12 to 16 teams in the future, and Yormark endorsed the 5-11 model – which would give automatic berths to the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large bids in a 16-team field.
"5-11 is fair," Yormark said. "We want to earn it on the field. It might not be the best solution today for the Big 12 given your comments about AQs, but long term knowing the progress we're making, the investments today, it's the right thing for us, and I'm doubling down today on 5/11."
The Big 12 and ACC seem to be in favor of this model – which is better than the proposed 4-4-2-2-1-3 model which would have rewarded four automatic berths to the Big Ten and SEC and two apiece to the ACC and Big 12. That model effectively would create a divide between the Power 4 conferences – and that inevitably would lead to a deterioration of the conferences and another round of realignment. We would be inching closer to the Big Ten-SEC Super League model at that point.
Yormark expressed confidence in Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades, who is the chairman of the CFP committee this season. Yormark believes in the discussions surrounding strength-of-schedule and the metrics behind the selection process. The 5-11 model would benefit the Big 12 in the long term, and Yormark put himself in the front of that discussion.
"I'm confident we'll get to the right place, and I'm confident we'll get to 5/11," Yormark said.
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Will Big 12 get multiple playoff berths in 2025?
Yormark can trump parity all he wants – but this is the paradox of college football. In some ways, it’s more advantageous to have a few superpowers at the top. Big Ten blue-bloods Ohio State and Michigan won the last two national championships. SEC blue-bloods Georgia and Alabama won the three national championships before that, and that conference saw the side-effects of parity of last season.
The Big 12 has not won a national championship since Texas in 2005 – a 20-year drought that illustrates the need for some of the schools to rise among the 16-team field. In other words, this is the long-term effect of losing Texas and Oklahoma. BYU and Colorado are the only teams in the current Big 12 to win a national title, with the most recent one coming 35 years ago.
"I think parity matters," Yormark said. "I think ultimately over time and hopefully sooner rather than later there will be a couple of our schools that emerge as elite schools that are always part of conversations at the highest levels. That’s what we’re working toward."
Will that lead to multiple CFP berths? Arizona State won the Big 12 last season and earned that automatic berth, but the Sun Devils also were No. 12 in the final CFP rankings. BYU (No. 17) and Iowa State (No. 18) were on the outside looking in.
In 2023, Texas (No. 3) made the CFP, and Oklahoma (No. 12), Oklahoma State (No. 20) and Kansas State (No. 25) were in the final rankings. In 2022, TCU (No. 3) made the CFP championship game, and Kansas State (No. 9) and Texas (No. 20) made the final rankings.
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That is not exactly over-the-top respect in the polls, and that’s the battle the conference faces this season. Yormark addressed not having a conference preseason poll, a staple at the media events.
Arizona State was a great story last season, and the Sun Devils were a fourth-and-13 prayer away from beating Texas in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The Sun Devils lost 39-31 in overtime. Now, the trick is to get that second – and perhaps third team – that can squeeze in. Otherwise, long term the Big 12 will be the equivalent of the Missouri Valley Conference in men’s basketball – the one that is always lamenting not getting that second team in.
"I'm thrilled with where the Big 12 is right now," Yormark said toward the end of the speech.
Even better if the conference can back up that two-bid prediction.