Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is all in on a 24-team College Football Playoff. Yormark spoke to On3 Sports on Wednesday, saying, ““We like 24, we want 24. There are too many teams getting left out and 24 teams provides the type of access that is warranted. That being said, we need to do the work around the economics around a 24-team format and make sure we address any unintended consequences.”
Also of note, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips signaled to On3 his desire for a 24-Team College Football Playoff. It’s also been long reported that the Big Ten is a fan of going to 24 teams, which makes the SEC the only hold out, reportedly preferring a 16-Team Playoff. Meantime, just last week, the American Football Coaches Association also revealed its support for a 24-team playoff.
What it Means for the Big 12?
A 24-Team Playoff would all but guarantee the end of the Big 12 Championship Game, along with all league title games, as the sport would have to quickly transition into a multi-weekend playoff model, likely starting the first weekend in December, which is now reserved for the conference championship.
This would definitely give the Big 12 greater access to the Playoff, as the league is likely stuck as a one-bid league in the current 12-team format. For a conference that has a ton of teams often ranked between 15 and 25, this would create solid opportunities for the league.
The question is whether or not the teams in the Big 12 could realistically make a reasonable and deep run in the College Football Playoff, even if they are able to get into a theoretical 24-team format.
What Now?
Regardless of how much support there is for a 24-team playoff, there will be no changes until the Big Ten and SEC agree on a future format.
“That focus hasn’t changed [on a 16-team format],” Sankey said Monday at the APSE Southeast Region meeting at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. “We’re open to the conversation, but there are a lot of ideas out there that have to be supported with analysis and information, not speculation.”
“We’re trying to inform that with research. We’ve done that, from our perspective, with 16. We want to understand, through some analytic support, games that matter in an expanded environment and games that might not matter.”
It doesn’t sound like the SEC is quite yet ready to move ahead with the 24-team idea, but three of the four Power 4 programs are on board, so it might just be a matter of time.
