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FRISCO, TX – There was no shortage of questions for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark during his introductory press conference on Tuesday at Big 12 media days. One topic that came up repeatedly was the potential expansion looming over the college football playoff.
Yormark repeatedly mentioned that he felt the Big 12 needs more access to the playoff. Since the inception of the CFP the Big 12 has never received more than one bid into the field.
“We've begun formal discussions around expansion and the right format moving forward,” Yormark said. “I've said it before, more access is needed as too many great teams are still left out. I've also said before we still need to work through the economics and scheduling and address any unintended consequences.”
Expansion always seems to be a certainty in the minds of the decision-makers of college football. With more teams in the mix factors like a potential switch to fewer nonconference games come into consideration.
“As it relates to ten conference games, it's something I brought up at the spring business meetings, and that will be predicated on where we end up or not in the College Football Playoff expansion,” Yormark said. “All those variables are interconnected and we'll address them when we need to.”
It seemed a few months ago that Yormark was in favor of a 16-team playoff. In the time that has followed it seems like his support has flipped to the currently proposed 24-team model.
“When 24 became part of the conversation, we've done our own conference due diligence around it, and we think it might be a great fit for us,” Yormark said. “We discussed it most recently in our spring business meeting with our coaches. Across the board they liked it, and we continue to have those conversations with our ADs and our presidents.”
Expansion in some sense will happen, probably sooner than later. Yormark and the Big 12 continue to be at the forefront of these changes.a
