Brett Yormark doubles down on 5-11 College Football Playoff model
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark left no doubt on where he stands in terms of the future model of the College Football Playoff at the league’s media days.
“We continue to believe the 5-11 model proposed by the Big 12 and the ACC is the right playoff format for college football. We want to earn it on the field. We do not need a professional model because we are not the NFL. We are college football and we must act like it,” he said. “There’s nothing in sports like college football and we must protect what makes it special and do what’s right for the fans and the game.”
The 5-11 model would see an expansion to 16-teams in the College Football Playoff with those bids going to the five highest rated conference champions and 11 at-large bids based on rankings.
That is opposed to another model that has been floated which would provide four automatic qualifying bids to the SEC and Big 10, two each to the Big 12 and ACC and one to the group of five. That would leave three at-large bids in a 16-team format.
Yormark admitted that bypassing two automatic bids might not be the best solution for the Big 12 today, but given the progress and investments that the league is making it would be for the future.
“We want to earn it on the field,” Yormark said.
The commissioner also placed faith in the selection process and detailed a meeting in North Carolina which was hosted by Executive Director Richard Clark where a full audit is being conducted in order to determine how they can modernize and contemporize the process.
“And use data and how certain metrics can be more heavily weighted,” he said.
The Big 12 had one team reach the College Football Playoff last season in Arizona State and while the league boasts a deep pool of teams there is a need in the future for contenders to emerge at the national level. Parity is a good thing in many ways and has created an exciting brand of football but schools will need to establish themselves as threats to make the field every season.
“I think parity matters and ultimately over time, hopefully it’s sooner than later, a couple of our schools will emerge as elite schools that are always part of the conversations at the highest levels,” Yormark said. “And that’s what we’re working toward.”
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