Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark Advocates for a 24-Team College Football Playoff

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark used his time at Big 12 Media Days to press a central postseason idea: expand the College Football Playoff to a 24-team format. In his view, the current structure does not consistently give enough teams a true chance to win the national championship, and a larger field would broaden the title chase without changing the sport’s basic premise that only the best teams play for the trophy.

The proposal matters to conference power dynamics because the Big 12 has often argued that it can produce championship-level teams even when the league’s teams are not always positioned as the most obvious “first in line” candidates under the existing selection model. Yormark’s comments, as reported by Yahoo Sports, framed the expansion as a way to ensure the conference remains a meaningful participant in the sport’s national-title hunt, not merely a participant in bowl season.

Yormark’s push also reflects a broader, long-running debate over what “access” should look like in a sport that relies on both performance and perception. Even when teams finish strongly, the playoff picture can be influenced by a limited number of slots and by how committees weigh results across different schedules and conferences. A 24-team bracket, if adopted, would alter the playoff math and could change how late-season outcomes translate into postseason positioning for more than just the usual handful of contenders.

At Media Days, commissioners and coaches typically discuss storylines that will shape fan interest and recruiting momentum during the season. Yormark’s message, according to the report, was blunt about the goal: create a pathway that makes a national championship opportunity more attainable for a wider range of teams. That aligns with the idea that a playoff should reward sustained excellence while also letting more programs earn a legitimate shot on the field rather than through secondary criteria.

Still, an expanded playoff would raise immediate practical questions that the report does not resolve. Expansion would require agreement among the conferences and postseason stakeholders, adjustments to scheduling, and clarity on how rankings, selection procedures, and conference championship results would factor into the field. Until there is official movement from the playoff governing entities, Yormark’s comments should be treated as advocacy and agenda-setting rather than a confirmed timeline.

What to watch next is whether other conference leaders support similar parameters and, more importantly, whether league offices begin translating the concept into concrete models. If the 24-team idea gains traction publicly, the next steps likely include discussions around eligibility, seeding, and the balance between automatic qualification and at-large selection, since those details determine how often teams from leagues like the Big 12 would be guaranteed a postseason runway.