Brett Yormark needs to spit bold, direct, and honest fire at the CFP selection committee in support of BYU

Brett Yormark is by and large an excellent commissioner of the Big 12 conference. He is a savvy businessman, and innovative thinker, and a strategic negotiator.

But right now he's failing the Big 12 conference broadly and BYU football specifically.

For the second straight year, the Big 12 is on pace to only have one team selected to participate in the College Football Playoffs. And for the second straight year, BYU is about to be the most overlooked, blatantly shafted team in the country by being excluded by the CFP selection committee.

Brett Yormark's weak, deferential public statement

On November 18th Brett Yormark essentially bent the knee, kissed the ring, and openly thanked the CFP selection committee for trashing his conference. At the time he made the comments below the Big 12 had just one team slotted to appear in the playoffs in Texas Tech. BYU was 9-1 and coming off an impressive 31-point shellacking of TCU, and yet the CFP selection committee was still banishing the Cougars. Here's what Yormark said:

Um, Brett. Thrilled? Respect?

Somebody apparently needed to remind the Big 12's commissioner that if the season ended the moment he made that weak, deferential statement that only one team from his conference would be in the College Football Playoffs for the second straight season.

That's not thrilling. That's not respectful.

Especially to BYU players, coaches, and fans who saw their team frozen out of the CFP last year despite a 10-2 record and only missing out on the Big 12 championship game because of an arbitrary tiebreaker formula. Last year the Cougars waxed No. 23 Colorado in the Alamo Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 13.

And this year's 10-1 team is even better. And once again, the Cougars are likely going to get shafted by the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Why Brett Yormark was dead wrong

As things stand today, 10-1 BYU is ranked No. 11 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Their only loss came on the road to No. 5 Texas Tech. BYU's Strength of Record ranks sixth in the country and is higher than five teams that currently lead them in the CFP standings: Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas Tech, and Notre Dame.

And yet, 10-1 BYU would not be in the College Football Playoffs if the season ended today. At No. 11 they would lose their Top 12 CFP spot to the ACC and Group of Five conference champions who are ranked behind BYU in the standings.

What Brett Yormark needs to say

I'll do Brett Yormark's job for him. Here's what he needs to say the next time he speaks into a microphone to lobby for his conference and for BYU:

"While I appreciate the difficult decisions the College Football Playoff selection committee is required to make in ranking many worthy teams, it is unacceptable that the Big 12 would only have one team in the playoffs if the season ended today. Specifically, BYU's No. 11 ranking, which currently excludes them from the CFP, is illogical at best and at worst raises serious questions about bias and lack of objectivity in the selection process.

BYU is 10-1 with their only loss coming on the road at No. 5 Texas Tech. BYU's Strength of Record, which uses objective metrics, is No. 6 nationally and yet the Cougars rank No. 11 in the subjective, arbitrary CFP standings. BYU is the only program in the country with six wins over bowl-eligible teams which includes No. 12 Utah, at Arizona, and impressive double-digit wins against Cincinnati, TCU, Iowa State, and ECU.

Regarding No. 7 Oregon's resume versus the No. 11 Cougars, both teams have equal records at 10-1. Oregon's Strength of Record is slightly higher (5th vs. 6th), BYU has the marginally better "best win" (No. 12 vs. No. 15) and a marginally worse "worst loss" (No. 5 vs. No. 2). With virtually identical resumes, Oregon is safely in the playoffs while BYU is on the outside looking in.

Regarding No. 9 Notre Dame, BYU's has the clearly superior Strength of Record (6th vs. 12th). In their two most difficult games BYU went 1-1 with a win against No. 12 Utah and a loss at No. 5 Texas Tech. Notre Dame lost both of its most difficult matchups at home against No. 3 Texas A&M and on the road at No. 13 Miami.

No. 11 BYU has an objectively more impressive resume than No. 9 Notre Dame.

Regarding No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 BYU has a superior Strength of Record (6th vs. 9th) and Alabama's two-loss resume is marred by a defeat at the hands of a 5-6 Florida State team that currently ranks 15th in the ACC.

BYU is just as deserving -- and in some cases clearly more so -- for inclusion in the College Football Playoffs as Oregon, Notre Dame, and Alabama. Yet for reasons that remain unclear, the 10-1 Cougars are ranked behind all three of them.

In addition to sitting at 10-1 this year, BYU went 11-2 last season. The Cougars have gone 20-3 over their last two seasons of Power Four football. BYU's only loss this year was on the road at No. 5 Texas Tech. One of the Cougars two losses last year was on the road to eventual conference champion Arizona State, who finished last season ranked No. 7. Coach Kalani Sitake has created a national powerhouse in Provo.

The stated reasons for potentially excluding BYU from this year's playoffs are arbitrary and inconsistent. Recently the selection committee's chair, Hunter Yurachek, said BYU was being held back because they were "dominated" by Texas Tech, yet the same selection committee isn't seemingly penalizing Alabama for losing to one of the ACC's worst teams in Florida State.

This year the selection committee explicitly added "strength of record" to reward teams that perform well against harder schedules while minimizing the impact of losing to strong opponents. BYU's Strength of Record is on par with Oregon and superior to Alabama's and Notre Dame's.

The goalposts established by the selection committee continue to shift when considering BYU's near flawless resume.

The Big 12's strong season warrants two teams in the College Football Playoffs. BYU has earned the right to be included in the CFP. Anything less would be both incomprehensible and unacceptable.

You're welcome, Mr. Yormark. As Big 12 commissioner, you know what you need to do. The logic holds. The mandate is clear: now go say what needs to be said!