Big 12 commish mulls new event if CFP ends conference title games — SkimNews
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- Brett Yormark told Big 12 media day the league would "replace" its championship games if CFP expansion eliminates them, framing tent-pole events as essential to fan engagement
- Yormark stressed "nothing is final" on the CFP — calling the 24-team expansion reports "only speculation" — even as he outlined contingencies
- Last season's Big 12 football title game between Texas Tech and BYU set a conference attendance record with 85,519 fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
- The Big 12 locked in its men's and women's basketball tournaments at Kansas City's T-Mobile Center through 2031
- Yormark called the Big 12 the "second-best basketball league" behind only the NBA, citing a conference-record 9 first-round picks in the 2026 NBA Draft
- The Big 12 is weighing a return to 20 conference basketball games after briefly experimenting with the format in 2024-25 before going back to 18
- Yormark said the Big 12 is content at 16 members — "I've got 16 kids" — and has no realignment plans despite expansion buzz
Why it matters: Yormark is drawing a preemptive line against any CFP restructure that would strip the Big 12 of a championship game that drew a record 85,519 fans last season and anchored its annual event revenue. By pledging to engineer substitute marquee moments — and coupling that with basketball tournaments locked in through 2031 — the commissioner is signaling the conference will fight to protect the tent-pole calendar regardless of how the playoff evolves.
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