Major Postseason Changes Coming?

It’s rare that the Big 12 scores an off-the-field victory over the SEC and Big Ten, but today, we have one of those to celebrate… cautiously. 

In the near future, the Big 12 championship game may turn into a matchup of the league's number two and three teams. 

Plus, as the Big 12 basketball conference race heats up, pay attention to Darian DeVries and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

What You Need to Know

• Ross Dellenger reports that there likely isn’t enough support to change how byes are awarded in the College Football Playoff next year. The SEC and Big Ten have been pushing for byes to go to the top four teams in the playoff rankings instead of the four highest-ranked conference champions. More on this in a moment. 

• ESPN SEC mouthpiece Paul Finebaum predictably took a shot at Big 12, ACC, and Group of Five leadership for stopping the movement to change the byes. 

• ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips suggested that Power Four conferences declare their regular season winner the conference champion and play a standalone game between the second and third-place finishers on championship weekend for a second automatic spot in the playoff. For example, BYU and Iowa State would have met in Arlington this year with a playoff bid on the line. 

• West Virginia’s win over #2 Iowa State highlights the weekend of Big 12 basketball. The Mountaineers have now beaten Kansas (in Lawrence) and ISU while playing without star Tucker DeVries. WVU has wins over Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas, and Iowa State while battling major injury issues in DeVries’ first season as head coach. He will be tough to beat for Big 12 Coach of the Year. 

• Houston’s thrilling win at UCF keeps them in the top spot of the Big 12 standings at 6-0, with Iowa State and Arizona right behind at 5-1. Seven Big 12 teams are in the current ESPN Bracketology field. Cincinnati, Arizona State, and UCF are all on the bubble.

Enjoying Open For Business? It would mean the world to me if you could share the newsletter with three of your friends who want Big 12 news without SEC or Big Ten bias. Tell them to sign up at OFBNews.com and get started today!

Big 12 Takes a Risky Stand

The Big 12, ACC, and Group of Five took a stand against the SEC and Big Ten. 

Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reports that there likely won’t be enough support to eliminate automatic byes for conference champions in the College Football Playoff next year. That means the door is wide open for another Big 12 team to advance straight to the quarterfinal in 2025, just like Arizona State did. 

There was a massive outcry from the SEC and Big Ten to immediately change the format to give the byes to the top four teams in the rankings instead of the conference champs. That would have meant byes for Oregon, Georgia, Texas, and Penn State instead of Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State this year. 

It would have sent Arizona State to South Bend as the 12 seed for a first-round road game. 

When this Ross Dellenger article came out in December, I figured the SEC and Big Ten could bully their way into changing it as soon as possible. 

The problem for the Power Two is that to make that change in 2025, they need unanimous approval from all conferences. That won’t be the case in 2026, when the current playoff contract expires and everything starts anew. The Big Ten and SEC won’t write unanimity into the rules next time. 

So, for now, the Big 12, ACC, and Group of Five stood their ground and didn’t let themselves get pushed around. On the surface, it seems like an obvious decision. 

Not only does securing a bye improve your chances of going deeper into the playoff, but it also guarantees the conference an extra $4 million at a time when every penny counts. Teams earn $4 million for advancing to the quarterfinal round. 

Money matters enough these days that the Big 12 has discussed the possibility of relinquishing its name to Allstate for the sake of the almighty dollar. 

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark didn’t even hide that motivation in Dellenger’s story. 

“I’m open to a healthy discussion on the topic,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “I certainly have a point of view that will be expressed in the room, but I do not have the appetite to give up any financial reward that comes with a bye.”

He’s never one to back down, and I love that. When he took over, the Big 12 desperately needed a leader with that kind of strength and bravado. 

That doesn’t mean Yormark, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, and the Group of Five's decision is risk-free, though.

They’re essentially playing a game of chicken with Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petiti and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. 

The elephant in the room is that the current playoff contract expires, so the Big Ten and SEC can do essentially whatever they want with the next version of the playoff–including eliminating every other conference entirely. 

That decision would have legal ramifications (likely an antitrust lawsuit), and they’re smart enough to know that excluding that much of the country from the sport’s primary postseason tournament would be short-sighted, but they could do it anyway. 

Even if they didn’t go that far, they could jam through four or more automatic bids for their conferences in the next version of the playoff if they really wanted to. There’s not much Yormark or anybody else can do to stop them. 

So, if you frustrate them with this 2025 decision to keep the byes as they are, you are risking that decision coming back to haunt you in the next iteration of the playoff. 

Will it have a major impact? Probably not, but you just never know. You’re essentially at the mercy of what kind of mood Sankey wakes up in on a daily basis. He’s the bully on the block. 

The SEC and Big Ten have been susceptible to public pressure. When they first floated the idea of having four automatic bids each for their leagues in the next version of the playoff, strong public backlash tabled the discussion. 

Maybe Arizona State’s performance against Texas had some level of impact in that regard. It gave the Big 12 ammo to use at the negotiating table. Do you really think the Big 12 champ didn’t deserve a bye when they were a targeting call away from beating the SEC runner-up in a defacto Texas home game?

Off-the-field wins over the SEC and Big Ten are few and far between these days, so I will certainly take this one. I applaud the courage of all parties involved in taking a stand. 

But keep your eye on how the next playoff format gets created. Sankey and Petiti certainly can’t be trusted to act in the best interest of anybody but themselves.

Prefer Big 12 news in video form? Subscribe to my YouTube Channel and join the hundreds of Big 12 fans who watch live on Wednesday and Sunday nights. The channel has 20,000+ subscribers and counting from all across the college football world. Don’t miss out!