While this year’s Big 12 spring football meetings covered topics ranging from revenue share to a new-and-improved Replay Operations Center, the real head-turner was how the conference’s members voted on a major talking point: the expansion of the College Football Playoff.
On May 28, all 16 head football coaches cast their vote on whether the College Football Playoff (CFP) should expand to a 24-team format.
Since Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has made clear his support for the 24-team format, the result of the vote was unsurprising.
Unanimous. All 16 head football coaches voted in favor of the proposed format.
This makes the Big 12 the second Power 4 conference to vote unanimously in favor of the CFP change, with the Big Ten being the first.
“It’s clear our coaches want a 24-team format, but we need to do the work around the economics and make sure we address any unintended consequences,” Yormark told the media.
The specific economic concern Yormark is referring to is what will happen to the conference championship game.
“In order to go to 24 you’re going to have to do away with our champ game. And that champ game for us drives a lot of economics,” he said on The Triple Option Podcast. “But in theory I like it [the 24-team model] because I think too many good teams are being left out.”
But is sacrificing conference championship games worth it in order to make room for a 24-team CFP?
Why conference championships matter
The Big 12 Conference Championship Game generated around $25 million this past season. Which seems like quite a bit of cash, right? Wrong. The Big 12 and ACC — who also gained around $25 million — were at the bottom of the Power 4 pileup.
The Big Ten generated roughly $50 million from its championship game and drew 18.33 million viewers, the most of any of the conference championship games this past season.
And finally, the king of the hill, the SEC. Despite not having the highest viewership, coming in at 16.9 million viewers, the SEC conference championship game generated $100 million in revenue.
That is a lot of cash, and not any that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey wants to give up. Thus, the SEC continues to hold out on expanding to 24, because of the funds it would lose.
The other issue with doing away with conference championship games is tradition.
“I love them,” said Jay Drew of the Deseret News. “I think the fans like them. I think the proof was the Big 12 Championship Game last year.”
And proof it was. Not only were the two teams highly ranked and projected to be playoff contenders, but they both had a chance at doing something monumental for their programs and fans.
BYU, after being an independent for 11 years, made its way to the Big 12 Conference Championship in just its second season in the conference.
It was also the program’s first trip to a conference championship game since 1998.
Texas Tech had never even been to a conference title game during its 30 years in the Big 12.
This past season’s championship game set the record as the most attended conference championship game in college athletics. The crowd of 85,000 sold out AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
After winning the game in dominant fashion, Texas Tech returned home to find fans lining the campus streets, celebrating its gridiron heroes.
Try telling that rowdy crowd of Red Raiders that conference championships don’t matter.
Why the CFP could matter more
Winning a conference championship game means something, but does winning a playoff game mean even more?
Moving to a 24-team format opens up a world of possibilities for teams to make historic runs. Let’s look at this past year’s playoff as an example:
Miami or Notre Dame was the big debate when it came time for team selection for the CFP. As we know, the committee chose Miami, much to the chagrin of the Fighting Irish.
Many wrote off the Hurricanes, and seeing as they were the No. 10 seed and last of the Power 4 teams, they were valid in doing so.
However, with a chip on its shoulder, Miami forged its way through No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 6 Ole Miss and finally, made its way into the national championship game.
Now, even though the Hurricanes lost in the national championship to a perfect 16-0 Indiana, which do you think fans will remember more:
Making a historic run through the playoff when most doubted their abilities, or instead, winning the ACC conference championship.
Cameron Clark of the LYST IT Podcast says that, in his opinion, winning a playoff game means more to fans overall. However, he says, it depends on which conference you are in.
“I think for SEC and Big Ten it’s more important to them to win the conference than one singular playoff game,” says Clark. “But for Group of 5 and the Big 12 and ACC, I think it’s more valuable to win a playoff game, even if it’s just one since they aren’t expected to win for the most part.”
So in the end the “lesser” conferences, not necessarily their fans, may ultimately be fine with putting aside their conference championship game for expanded the CFP.
Why not both?
Some people out there may be under the impression that college football can have its cake and eat it too.
Everybody wants more football, right? So why not just keep the conference championship games and move the playoffs back a week?
Well, this coming season the national championship game is set to take place on Jan. 25, 2027, and that’s with the 12-team format.
So trying to keep the conference championship games around is pretty unrealistic.
“I like them [conference championships], but I can certainly see where that’s a little too much,” said Drew. “If you’re going to still play them and have a 24-team playoff, you’re going to go well into January and maybe even almost February.”
Drew also brought to attention something that most fans may not be thinking about.
Athletes are students too.
“We got to start thinking about the student-athletes and what this does to their academic side of things,” he said. “These [games] are going to be right in the middle of finals.”
This upcoming season, the CFP First Round will begin on Dec. 18, 2026. For some perspective, finals at BYU start on Dec. 12, and run through Dec. 17.
The superfans might say “Well hey, that’s not too bad, and student-athletes are all communications majors anyway!”
Well, for example, BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier is majoring in economics, which, by the way, is considered one of the most challenging programs at the university.
So, why not both? Well, besides the scheduling nightmare trying to keep conference championships would create, the well-being of student-athletes is also an unintended consequence of trying to keep conference championship games.
Sorry superfans.
Is it worth the sacrifice?
If you value the money gained from the championship games, then no.
If you are a fan that wants nothing more than to prove your team is the best team in the entire conference, then also no.
But if you don’t care about the money lost, have a deep belief in the magic of a 24-team playoff, want to keep college football contained to January (maybe) and value the potential well-being of student-athletes — then yes, conference championship games are a worthy sacrifice.