College football’s next big fight is getting bigger by the day, and the Big 12 is right in the middle of it. The sport’s power brokers are weighing a jump from a 12-team College Football Playoff to 24 teams during a new 30-day negotiation window with ESPN, a move that would reshape the postseason and nearly erase the bowl system as it exists now.
For Brett Yormark and the Big 12, that kind of expansion has long been the dream. A bigger field would give the league a much wider path into the bracket, potentially putting multiple teams in the playoff conversation instead of the one-or-two-program ceiling it has lived with before. In the new setup, teams with 10 wins, nine wins, or even eight wins could find themselves in the mix if the committee deems them worthy.
But the tradeoff is obvious: what used to be bowl season would turn into a stretch of first- and second-round playoff games running through much of December. The season would stretch longer, too, with the final four teams potentially playing 17 or 18 games. That raises the real question hanging over the whole idea - whether the payoff is worth the cost.
The Big 12’s playoff record doesn’t exactly scream dominance. The league is 1-8 in CFP history, with TCU accounting for the lone victory in 2022. Arizona State, Texas Tech, and former members Texas and Oklahoma all came up short of the field, and TCU’s run ended in a 65-7 loss to Georgia in the 2022 national championship game.
That history matters because a 24-team format would likely force Big 12 schools to spend even more just to keep up. If the league suddenly has three or even five realistic postseason contenders in a strong year, the financial pressure rises right along with the opportunity. More access sounds great on paper, but it comes with a steeper price tag for the average member.
There’s also the way an expanded playoff changes the regular season itself. One of the Big 12’s biggest selling points has been the chaos created by Texas and Oklahoma leaving the league, but a larger playoff would take some of the sting out of those midseason losses. Upsets would still matter, but they wouldn’t carry the same knockout punch.
At the same time, more teams would stay alive deeper into the year. A couple of losses wouldn’t automatically bury a program in the committee’s eyes, and that keeps more fan bases engaged. Still, it changes the feel of games that used to be loaded with urgency, including matchups like Arizona-BYU and Texas Tech-Houston, which drew more than a combined 6 million viewers early in the Big 12 season.
Not everyone is buying the expansion pitch. Josh Pate has been one of the loudest voices pushing back, calling a 24-team playoff a “bailout” for Power Four leadership.
CFB "leaders" are some of the biggest failures in the world…a 24-team CFP is the bailout they hope people are dumb enough to buy pic.twitter.com/Wz6dQ8LQOB
- Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) October 2, 2026
His argument lands because the same people promising tougher scheduling would still be the ones controlling seeding and selection. And with Power Four schools already pouring millions into their football programs, the idea that everyone will suddenly schedule more aggressively because the path to the playoff gets wider feels shaky at best.
What the CFP leaders do seem to want is accessibility, and plenty of it. They see a bigger postseason as a possible money machine, something that could grow like March Madness while riding college football’s place as the top sport on American television.
So the Big 12 may gain more chances to get in. It may also gain more costs, more strain, and a regular season that means a little less. Either way, one thing is clear: a 24-team playoff would not make the sport any cheaper.
In Other News...
BYU Heads To TCU With One Big Chance To Silence Doubts
Advanced metrics say BYU should walk into Fort Worth with a real opportunity to back up the record and quiet some of the lingering skepticism around the program. Several projection systems are on the Cougars side, including SP+, FPI and FEI, all of which tilt toward BYU in a matchup that looks more favorable on paper than the road setting might suggest. Most of the forecasts point to a result with BYU ahead by about a touchdown, which is enough to make this feel like more than just another conference trip.
The appeal for BYU is straightforward: an offense with enough punch to test a TCU defense that has had trouble turning possessions into points for opponents. The numbers do not guarantee anything on Saturday, of course, but they do frame this as one of those games that can either reinforce the Cougars rise or leave the conversation about how far they still have to go hanging in the air a little longer. [Read more 🡒]
Undefeated BYU Walks Into A TCU Team Desperate To Respond
TCUs Big 12 home opener comes with plenty on the line, and the setting hardly offers a cushion. The Horned Frogs welcome undefeated BYU to Amon G. Carter Stadium on Oct. 3, with the matchup landing at a time when TCU is trying to steady itself after a rough stretch and sort through its player availability concerns.
BYU brings more than an unbeaten record into Fort Worth, and quarterback Bear Bachmeier is at the center of the challenge for TCUs defense. Add in the usual first-weekend-in-October variables, from game-day details to the weather forecast and the history around the series, and this feels like the kind of test that can quickly define where both teams are headed in league play. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Heads Into TCU With One Strength About To Be Tested
Through four weeks of the 2026 college football season, one of the clearest dividing lines in the Big 12 has been what teams do on third down. Houston and Kansas State have set the pace in conversion rate, while TCU enters conference play with a defense that has been especially tough in getting off the field, allowing opponents to convert only 24.5% of the time. For BYU, that makes the upcoming trip a good early test of a trait that often decides whether drives stay alive or die short of the sticks.
TCUs offense, meanwhile, has had a tougher time sustaining those same situations, converting at a 43.4% clip, which adds another layer to the matchup. As the Big 12 slate settles in, the Cougars are about to find out whether their efficiency can hold up against a defense built to disrupt it, with red-zone execution another area worth watching once the field shortens and every possession carries more weight. [Read more 🡒]