A 24-team College Football Playoff took another big step forward this week, and the Big 12 was right in the middle of it.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua all publicly supported the Big Ten’s 24-team plan this week. 

It isn’t hard to figure out why. The Big 12 saw a deserving BYU team get left out of the playoff for a second straight season. Notre Dame thought it was good enough to win the national title last season but didn’t make the field. The ACC had to fight to get Miami in, and the Hurricanes nearly won the whole thing.

A 24-team playoff means Notre Dame would start every season knowing that, barring a total disaster, it will be in the field. The Big 12 would have had eight more playoff teams over the last two seasons if a 24-team format existed. The ACC would have had five more.

As I mentioned earlier this week, it is probably true that a 24-team playoff would be objectively better for the Big 12 than a 12-team playoff. It would give the league much better access to the field than it has ever had before.

You can certainly argue this is the only way to ensure a fair playoff where every league has a legitimate chance. Having that many teams in the field greatly reduces the opportunity to exclude teams based on logo.

And the idea of a 24-team playoff has the SEC in shambles. Commissioner Greg Sankey still prefers expanding to 16, in part to preserve the lucrative SEC championship game, which would be eliminated by a 24-team playoff.

Paul Finebaum is losing his mind over the idea of expanding to 24. 

Finebaum is typically going to hate anything that helps the Big 12, so I understand the urge to take this as confirmation that a 24-team playoff is the way to go.

But I have to admit, as I listened to him in that clip, all I could think about was one of the greatest internet memes ever created.

I do think a 24-team playoff would significantly devalue the excitement of college football’s most valuable asset: the regular season.

That is what has always made college football completely unique from every professional sports league. Historically, there has been very little room for error if you’re pursuing a national title. One loss could end your season. The stakes simply aren’t close to that high in any other major sport’s regular season.

It also created an environment where there was so much more to care about than the postseason. Regional rivalries mattered more than almost anything. Winning your conference was a big deal. Having a good season that ended in a cool bowl trip was legitimately meaningful. 

I fully realize we’ve already left that world behind by moving to a 12-team playoff, killing the Pac-12, and creating bloated, nonsensical conferences that have broken up plenty of rivalries. 

Going to 24 teams would just be another huge step in that same misguided direction.

College football is the frog that jumped into a pot of lukewarm water. Every time a decision like this is made, the temperature goes up another notch. Eventually, the pot will be boiling, and it will be too late for the frog to jump out.

I would also caution any Big 12 fans who are overly eager to get in bed with the Big Ten on this issue. While I certainly have plenty of issues with the SEC, it’s the Big Ten that has been more insidious over the last five years.

It was only a year ago that the Big Ten wanted to ram through a plan for a 16-team playoff that required the Big 12 to sign off on only having half the value of the Big Ten and SEC. 

Did we forget that the Big Ten created the Alliance with the Pac-12 and ACC to protest the SEC adding Texas and Oklahoma, then turned around and killed the Pac-12 by taking USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington?

And of course, what is truly at the heart of all of this? TV. 

Fox wants College Football Playoff inventory. ESPN currently controls all of it into the 2030s. But if the playoff expands, any new inventory would be up for bid. That means Fox could get its hands on up to ten new playoff games per year, so it is pushing its main partner, the Big Ten, to make it happen.

There is also a financial component that the conferences need to figure out. The Power Four conference championship games are worth a combined $250 million. Will the ten extra playoff games be a net positive financially? 

Maybe. But these aren’t all going to be Texas vs. Ohio State. They’re more likely to look like Army at Indiana or UNLV at Ole Miss. And reports indicate the financial exploration has only recently begun. This is not a fully fleshed-out plan yet.

At the end of the day, I realize I’m fighting against the reality of what the sport has become and where it is headed. What we grew up with is gone, and I should probably just get on board with what’s best for the Big 12 now that the Playoff Industrial Complex has won the war.

Just forgive me if I have some reservations about it all. 

What You Need to Know

• How much did K-State spend on its football and men’s basketball rosters for the upcoming seasons? AD Gene Taylor revealed the exact numbers. 

• We also got a number on how much Oklahoma State spent on its football roster. 

• Here is the latest Big 12 school to turn down a $30 million private capital loan from the Big 12’s Redbird deal. The school’s AD wasn’t shy about explaining why. 

• Here’s a good look into how much Texas Tech is dominating Big 12 recruiting right now. 

• If you want to have a good laugh at the SEC, you HAVE to listen to this clip.

• Want your Big 12 news and analysis in podcast form? Listen to Open For Business at the gym, in your car, or first thing in the morning on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

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