Big 12 football coaches vote unanimously in favor of College Football Playoff expansion

Big 12 coaches unanimously support a 24-team CFP, as the 12-team format has only included one team from the conference each year.

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 30, 2026, 8:06 AM Updated: 12:36 pm

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FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Big 12 coaches unanimously agreed Thursday on their preference for a 24-team College Football Playoff, a scenario in which the conference would have had five playoff teams last season instead of only league champion Texas Tech like it did in the current 12-team playoff format.

When the 16 coaches were informally polled about doubling the size of the playoff field during one of their sessions at the Big 12 spring meetings, all of them raised their hands.

“They should ask coaches for more opinions on what’s best for college football,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “We voted and it was unanimous. … Who knows where that goes.”

Scott Draper, the league’s chief competition officer, said the coaches took part in an hour-plus presentation by the CFP staff.

“If the 24-team playoff started last year, we would have had five teams in,” Draper said. “We were the second-ranked conference, strength of conference, in their metrics last year. So I’m confident that we’ll be well-represented in a 24-team playoff.”

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has expressed his support for a 24-team playoff if the economics of such an expansion make sense.

League runner-up BYU’s only two losses last season were to Texas Tech, first in the regular season and then in the Big 12 championship game. The Cougars were 12th in the final CFP rankings last year, but they and No. 11 Notre Dame were left out of the playoff because of automatic qualifiers that instead got into the field. Three other Big 12 teams were in that final poll: with Utah 15th, Arizona 17th and Houston 21st.

Texas Tech was fourth in the CFP rankings and got a first-round playoff bye before losing to Oregon in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.

A 24-team playoff would eliminate automatic qualifiers and render conference title games virtually meaningless.

Because the Big Ten and SEC haven’t been able to agree on the playoff format, it remained at 12 teams for the upcoming season. The deadline to decide about 2027 is Dec. 1.

Big 12 becoming 1st Power Four conference with full College Sports Commission participation

The Big 12 is becoming the first Power Four conference to have each of its members sign participation agreements with the College Sports Commission, the agency formed last year to police name, image and likeness payments.

“The Big 12 wants rules and enforcements, and we want to be a leader in that area,” Yormark said Friday after the league wrapped up four days of annual meetings. “I think signing the participation agreement certainly is indicative of that.”

The agreement requires schools to waive their right to file lawsuits against the enforcement agency and gives it wide latitude to sanction programs for violating rules that outline how players can be paid after the House settlement last year.

But all 68 Power Four schools must sign the 11-page document for it to become valid. All schools had initially been asked to review and sign the document by last December.

“I can’t speak for the other conferences. I mean, obviously they all say they want rules and enforcement, but they haven’t signed the participation agreement,” Yormark said.

Richard Linton, president of Kansas State, said the Big 12 board of directors — composed of the presidents and chancellors from the league’s 16 schools — unanimously agreed to sign the document.

Yormark said the league expected to have all the signatures by early next week.

The document outlines rules that have been established since the House settlement was approved last summer — for instance, about the salary cap and the CSC’s role in analyzing third-party name, image, likeness deals through its NIL Go platform.

Bryan Seeley, the CEO of the CSC, addressed Big 12 members and league officials this week during their meetings in North Texas.

The CSC says it has cleared more than 26,000 NIL deals worth some $242.3 million through May 1 since its launch.

Yormark said he was on a call earlier Friday with the CSC and other conference commissioners.

“Like any startup, and the CSC is a startup, not even 12 months old, you have to think about what’s working and what’s not and what are the necessary adjustments both short-term and long-term that we should be considering,” Yormark said. “And we’re going to dive into that a little bit more in the coming weeks to determine what that might look like. … But I’m bullish on the direction of the CSC.”