Brett Yormark doubles down on Big 12's preferred College Football Playoff format
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark doubled-down on his league's support for the "5+11" model for the next College Football Playoff format.
For the second straight day, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark took to ESPN to double down on his conference’s preference for what the future of the College Football Playoff should look like. He also made it clear that whatever new format the expanded CFP eventually adopts, it should not include automatic qualifying bids.
As SEC coaches and administrators weighed options on various potential proposals during this week’s SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla., Yormark and the Big 12 held their own league meetings in Orlando. There, the focus was more on potentially expanding the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
That’s because, for the Big 12 at-large, the future of the College Football Playoff should be the proposed 16-team “5+11” model. That includes 11 at-large bids along with five guaranteed bids for the Power Four conference champions and the highest-ranked Group of Six champion.
“First and foremost, I like 16. More access is better for the Big 12 for sure. But I’m also about fairness, and there’s been a lot of conversations out there about AQs and from where I sit – and I know I speak for our coaches and ADs – we want to earn it on the field. And I’m adamant about that. I think a 5+11 format does that,” Yormark said during a Thursday afternoon hit on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “It’s fair, it’s what our fans want. They don’t want an invitational. They want a true Playoff system. We have that now. I thought last year going to a 12-team format was fantastic. It played out exactly how people had hoped. It was very dramatic. It created a lot of interest. Going to 16 does more of that. But I think we need to take these multiple AQs out of the conversation and I think 5+11 does that. And that’s our preference.”
Report: Big Ten ADs discussed 5-plus-11 CFP model with Yormark
Entering this week’s SEC spring meetings, the “4-4-2-2-1” model was discussed multiple times. However, the league started to look closer at the 5+11 format once the coaches got to town, Yahoo! Sports insider Ross Dellenger said. As a result, the Big Ten was likely surprised by the shift.“Today, in response to the SEC considering the 5+11 so seriously — which I think was a little bit unexpected from Big Ten territory – the Big Ten ADs did have a meeting earlier today, they had a call with commissioner Tony Petitti,” Dellenger said on Wednesday’s The Paul Finebaum Show. “I think most of them feel that they would not support a 5+11 format if the SEC remained at eight conference games because the Big Ten is at nine conference games. Basically, they might say the SEC gets one sort of pushover game, and if you’re in a model – 5+11 with so many at-large [bids], 11 – every win and loss is even more important. And the Big Ten has now for weeks, if not months, been on the 4-4-2-2-1 format.
“Even in the SEC athletic director room, I think the majority of them were on the 4-4-2-2-1 format. But there’s been some change this week. It’s pretty clear that the coaches came in, and they’re not in favor of that.”
