Brett Yormark Encouraging CFP to Leave Room in Talks for Further Realignment
On Friday, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that the College Football Playoff is looking at a new revenue-sharing model that would greatly benefit the Big Ten and SEC.
In the proposed model, which will be shared amongst administrators this week, the Big Ten and SEC will combine to earn 58% of the CFP’s base distribution. For comparison, the “Power Five” conferences evenly split 80% of the CFP’s $460 million in revenue in the past model.
Even splits of 58% of the revenue would dwarf what the ACC and Big 12 would be splitting, which Delleger says is expected to be around 31%. The roughly 10% that remains would go to Notre Dame and the 64 Group of Five Teams.
In short, this wouldn’t be great news for the Big 12, as its teams would make roughly $12.3 million a year from CFP revenue, while the SEC would earn nearly double that, around $23 million annually.
However, Dellenger’s report contained one interesting point that should catch the eye of anyone following the Big 12.
The revenue-sharing contract currently being discussed includes a look-in provision encouraged by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. The provision in question concerns, you guessed it, further conference realignment.
Now, Yormark could simply be using his forward-thinking mentality to ensure that all bases are covered, but the fact that he’s encouraged the provision to be added feels a bit more intentional than that.
Is Yormark hinting at something else on the horizon, or does this all add up to a big nothing-burger while the Big Ten and SEC continue to become a bigger and bigger problem for the Big 12?
As always, we’ll have to wait and see.
