The current 12-team College Football Playoff format has been corrupted by prioritizing brand power over on-field performance.
The current 12-team format could be rebranded as the "ESPN Invitational Powered by the SEC" if truth in advertising standards applied. The only solution to overcome the bias and exclusionary nature that permeates the current CFP format is to expand the playoffs to 24 teams.
Related Story: ESPN is phasing BYU football out of the College Football Playoff conversation
Every BYU fan and Big 12 supporter needs to get on the 24-team playoff bandwagon.
The Big 12 gets zero at-large bids in the current 12-team CFP
The 12-team College Football Playoffs have been in place for two years.
In the current format there are only 12 seats at the College Football Playoffs table. Five of those are intended for the four Power Four conference champions and a Group of Six representative. Additionally, Notre Dame gets a special exception invite to the CFPs if they finish in the Top 12 of the final CFP rankings.
Given the Notre Dame exception, there are usually either six or seven at-large bids at the disposal of the CFP selection committee. Here's how those at-large bids have been granted over two years in the 12-team format:
SEC - 6 bids
Big Ten - 5 bids
ACC - 2 bids
Big 12 - Zero bids
That's right, Big 12 fans, this conference is 0-for-13 in securing at-large bids in two seasons in the current format. There are a host of reasons as to why this is. This includes the problematic way in which SEC and Big Ten teams receive preferential treatment in the preseason AP Poll and the biased way ESPN promotes a season-long pro-SEC narrative.
But this is also due to the Big 12's inability to create and maintain dominant Top 10 teams at the top of the conference. The Big 12 doesn't have legacy dominant programs leading the conference like the SEC and Big Ten do, and shifting that paradigm will be measured in generations, not years.
The Big 12 thrives in the No. 12 through No. 24 rankings
Given the systemic problems with the AP Poll, ESPN's biased coverage of the SEC, and the Big 12's inability to field perennial Top 10 teams, there's something of a "Top 10 glass ceiling" the Big 12 faces as a whole. In the current 12-team CFP format, this means the conference will most likely be limited to one playoff team most years, and that being the automatic qualifier as the Big 12 champion.
But if the College Football Playoffs were expanded to 24 teams, the Big 12 would be well represented.
In 2025 the Big 12 only had one CFP participant in conference champion Texas Tech. If the playoffs were expanded to 24 schools last year, the Big 12 would have likely had five teams in the playoffs. Now, this assumes a 24-team playoff would simply include the top 24 teams, though that might not be the case when it's all said and done. But assuming a "Top 24 and you're in" model, here's where those five teams were ranked in the CFP's rankings in Week 15 last year which determines playoff spots:
2025 Big 12 CFP teams (Top 24): Texas Tech (4), BYU (11), Utah (15), Arizona (18), Houston (21)
Instead of five Big 12 teams in a 24-team format, last year the Big 12 had one representative, conference champ Texas Tech, in the 12-team CFP.
In 2024, the first year of the 12-team CFP format, only conference champion Arizona State made the playoffs. Even then they were ranked a lowly No. 15 in the Week 15 CFP standings. The Sun Devils took Texas to double overtime and were a disputed pass interference call away from beating the supposed mighty SEC juggernaut, but ASU was the Big 12's only representative.
Had the CFP been a 24-team playoff in 2024, the Big 12 would have had three teams in the playoffs:
2024 Big 12 CFP teams (Top 24): Arizona State (15), BYU (18), Colorado (23)
In the first two iterations of the 12-team College Football Playoffs, the Big 12 had just two teams invited to participate. Had the CFP been a 24-team affair, the conference would have likely had eight teams given the national platform to prove their worth on the field.
How 2026 is shaping up for the Big 12 Playoff picture
With the 2026 season one-third of the way done, Big 12 fans should be pounding the tables for a 24-team playoff.
As things stand today, the CFP Poll hasn't been released yet, but the AP Poll is rolling along and serves as a good barometer as to how the CFP rankings will fall. Here are the five Big 12 teams that would make a 24-team playoff if the postseason were to start today:
2026 Big 12 CFP teams (Top 24): BYU (8), Texas Tech (11), Utah (12), Oklahoma State (18), Houston (22)
Doesn't five Big 12 teams in a 24-team playoff sound awesome?
Now, what's likely going to happen in this year's 12-team model is BYU, Texas Tech, and Utah will be punished for even one loss to the point they just fall out of the Top 12 CFP rankings. That's precisely what happened to 11-1 BYU last year with a regular season loss to Texas Tech, then losing again to the Red Raiders in the conference championship game.
BYU and Utah play each other this year, so get ready for one of them to be on the outside looking in on the CFP for the rest of the season no matter what. Essentially the only way the Big 12 will get two teams into the CFP this year is for the winner of the BYU-Utah game to go undefeated leading up to the Big 12 championship game to claim an at-large big, and for Texas Tech or Oklahoma State to then win the conference championship and secure an automatic bid.
The odds of that happening are low, so get ready for a third straight year of the Big 12 getting just one team in the 12-team CFP.
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