College football stakeholders have been hard at work this offseason shaping the future of the College Football Playoff, and they made significant headway in finalizing a 5+11 model in another potential wave of bracket expansion. The structure would reward the five highest-ranked conference champions with automatic bids and place the 11 next-highest ranked teams in the field as at-large participants. And at Big 12 Media Days on Tuesday, commissioner Brett Yormark said he is “doubling down” on his support of the proposed format.
The Big 12 stands to benefit from the 5+11 proposal in that it effectively guarantees the conference champion a seat at the CFP table. While it is possible that two Group of Five (or Group of Six following the Pac-12’s rebuild) champions could stand above the top Big 12 squad, it would take an extreme set of circumstances to exclude the league from the batch of automatic qualifiers.
“5+11 is fair,” Yormark said, via ESPN. “We want to earn it on the field. It might not be the best solution today for the Big 12 … but long-term, knowing the progress we’re making, the investments we’re making, it’s the right format for us. And I’m doubling down today on 5+11.”
The 5+11 model offers fewer guarantees to the Big 12 than the initial proposal that reportedly stemmed from SEC and Big Ten leaders. Under that structure, the SEC and Big Ten would receive four automatic bids apiece while the ACC and Big 12 would hold two each, Notre Dame would have a guarantee if it ranks inside the top 16 and the final spot or two would go to at-large selections.
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While the SEC- and Big Ten-dominant proposal would have carved out two guaranteed spots for the Big 12, it also had its downsides, effectively codifying the wedge between the two most powerful conferences and the rest of the sport.
Yormark said he expects ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to emphasize the same pro-5+11 stance when his conference starts its media days later this month. He also said to ESPN he is “relatively confident” the playoff will expand to 16 teams when its new media rights contract begins in the 2026 season.
“I’m confident we’ll get to the right place,” Yormark said. “And ultimately, I’m confident we’ll go to 5+11.”
The conferences and CFP administrators already approved an amended 12-team format for the upcoming season, doing away with seeding guarantees for conference champions and moving instead to a straight-seeding model. That move eliminates first-round byes for teams ranked outside the top four after Boise State and Arizona State leapfrogged No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State in the first year of the expanded bracket.
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