I still don’t like the idea of a 24-team playoff. But I did finally see an explanation that made it easier to stomach, and it came from an unlikely source. 

Bud Elliott is one of the hosts of the Cover 3 podcast. It’s a great show that you should check out, but like all national college football shows, it skews heavily toward the SEC and Big Ten. 

That’s why I was surprised by how much empathy Elliott showed toward non-blue-blood brands in this breakdown of why a 24-team playoff actually makes sense.

Here are the CliffsNotes if you don’t want to read the whole thing:

• 9-3 or 8-4 is a good-to-great season for a lot of Power Four football programs. It gets donors excited, boosts recruiting, and creates real momentum.

• We used to have a fitting reward for those types of seasons. It was called the Alamo Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, etc. 

• Thanks to a decade-plus of having the College Football Playoff shoved down our throats by ESPN and national media, those bowl games are no longer meaningful enough to be a sufficient reward for that type of season. 

• In the new college football world, the replacement reward for those old-school bowl seasons is a trip to an expanded playoff.

That is by far the most logical and best justification I’ve seen for going to 24 teams. Of course, that’s not why the powers that be are actually pushing it. For them, it comes down to money and money alone. 

I also don’t think a 24-team playoff is totally inevitable. Whether we like it or not, the only two opinions that truly matter are the Big Ten’s and the SEC’s, and the SEC is completely dug in against a 24-team field.

But if we do get to 24 teams, which Big 12 program would benefit the most?

A lot of casual college football fans would probably say Texas Tech or BYU. 

Tech is set up right now to make plenty of playoff appearances in a 12-team field, so I think that disqualifies them as the answer to this question. 

BYU seems like an obvious answer because the Cougars just barely missed a 12-team bracket in each of the last two seasons. According to On3’s Andy Staples’ hypothetical 24-team brackets for the last two seasons, BYU would have hosted Georgia Tech in the first round in 2025 and played a road game at Arizona State in 2024. Both would have been winnable games, and winning playoff games raises your profile like nothing else in the sport right now.

But I’d actually argue BYU is well-positioned enough to win the Big 12 and make regular playoff appearances in the current system, too. The Cougars are in a similar position to Tech.

Utah and Oklahoma State have been as consistent as anybody in the conference during the playoff era. As many of you have pointed out on Twitter, the Utes and Pokes would have made more playoff appearances than any other Big 12 teams if the field had always been at 24. 

I just need to see what Eric Morris and Morgan Scalley actually are as head coaches before cementing those programs as the biggest beneficiaries.

K-State came to mind as well. In the Chris Klieman era, the Wildcats lived in the back half of the top 25, which is exactly the type of program that would benefit most from a 24-team field. Klieman won 8-10 games in five of his seven seasons.

If you had asked me this question before last season, K-State would have been a pretty obvious answer. 

I need to get a feel for what Collin Klein is as a head coach before making any judgments there. 

Houston is another team I would seriously consider as the biggest winner. Willie Fritz won ten games in year two of what has become an incredible turnaround job with the Cougars. His 2025 team would have been the 21 seed playing a road game at Miami in Staples’ hypothetical bracket, and the 2026 Coogs would be a prime candidate for a 24-team field, too. 

You can certainly make a case for TCU. The Horned Frogs have been a program of high highs and low lows in the playoff era, but they would have made the field four times if it had always included 24 teams.

Any of the programs already mentioned would be perfectly acceptable answers to the question of who would benefit the most from a 24-team playoff, but I give a slight lean to Arizona State. 

The reasoning is pretty simple: I think Kenny Dillingham is the best coach in the Big 12, and he has adequate but not elite resources at ASU. 

If you paired Dillingham with Texas Tech- or BYU-level financial support, you’d have a real monster brewing. I don’t think the Sun Devils have that. At least not yet.

They do, however, have enough ammo to support a coach capable of willing quarterback Jeff Simms to eight wins and winning a Big 12 title with an overlooked running back transfer from Sacramento State.

Dillingham also appears to be in it for the long haul in Tempe after turning down overtures from Michigan this offseason. The Sun Devils aren’t going anywhere. 

You can listen to a more detailed explanation of my reasoning behind choosing Arizona State on my YouTube channel. 

What You Need to Know

• Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby is suing the NCAA to expedite his reinstatement process. 

• A Big 12 AD had a more cautious approach to a 24-team playoff than Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. 

• Iowa State lost a skill position player for the season with an achilles injury. 

• Will Houston shock Texas Tech in Lubbock this year? I got a great breakdown from Parker Ainsworth of Locked on Coogs. 

• Texas Tech put together one of the most incredible comebacks in NCAA softball history to beat Ole Miss.

• 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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