By Matt Girard
FRISCO, Texas—The Big 12 Conference is now comprised of 16 different teams spread across the country, but one thing was clear during the first day of the conference’s annual media days—they are all on the same page when it comes to the state of the conference as a whole, the expanded College Football Playoff and NIL.
“From a brand perspective, the Big 12 profile is as strong as it’s ever been,” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said during his opening statement. “We truly have become a national conference, and our narrative has extended beyond the sports page. Establishing and maintaining our position within the Power Four also remains a key priority for us. And frankly, I feel better about our position than ever before.”
Although the conference lost blue-blood programs in Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, and many wondered whether the conference would survive, the new Big 12 proved it will be around for years to come by competing not only for national championships, but also by embracing revenue sharing for its member universities and student-athletes.
Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said the Big 12 is thriving.
“The additions we’ve made over the last four or five years have helped us steady the ship during a really rocky time, and not even just the quality of football program, but the quality of universities that have come in and have added great value to the Big 12 right now,” said Campell, whose team will kick off the 2025 season against rival Kansas State on Aug. 30 in Dublin, Ireland.
UCF head coach Scott Frost, who is in his second stint as head coach of the Knights, said he has watched the conference from afar but is excited for the challenge of competing in the conference he once played in as a quarterback for Nebraska and where the conference is headed.
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“Had a ton of admiration for the league watching from afar,” Frost said. “The parity in this league, the different types of styles in this league, the high-scoring brand of football that they play, I think it makes for an exciting product. I think Commissioner Yormark and the rest of the people in the league have uniquely positioned this league to—I think it’s a fast, exciting, brand of football and like I said, I’m just honored to be a part of it.
‘Doubling Down’ on 5+11 Model
During his opening statement Yormark also “doubled down” on the Big 12 and ACC’s proposed “5+11 model” for the CFP.
“We continue to believe the 5+11 model proposed by the Big 12 and the ACC is the right playoff format for college football,” Yormark said. “We want to earn it on the field. We do not need a professional model because we are not the NFL. We are college football, and we must act like it. There is nothing in sports like college football and we must protect what makes it special and do what’s right for the fans and the game.”
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Last season, Arizona State earned a bye in the inaugural 12-team playoff, but was the lone representative from the conference. The proposed 5+11 model would award automatic bids to the five highest-rated conference champions along with 11 at-large bids selected by the CFP committee.
Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman a 16-team playoff would be the perfect landing spot for college football and teams should be playing the same amount of games.
“You can’t have some leagues playing nine conference games and some leagues playing eight conference games,” Klieman said. “So we’ve got to get on the same page there. If we can do that, I still think if you have the five AQs (automatic qualifiers) and have 11 at-large teams, then you’ve got some head-to-head matchups, and those head-to-head matchups—P4 versus P4—are going to matter.”
NIL Protection
Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) was also a topic of discussion for the coaches assembled during the first day, and centered around not only putting up guardrails, but also making sure all coaches know what rules to follow.
Along with all agreeing that more coaches should be involved in the process of determining the NIL rules in the future, they also said they believed there should be a way of holding schools accountable once those rules are in place.
“If there’s people that are not (playing by the rules), or they’re trying to get this advantage or that advantage and trying to go around the system, then there needs to be some type of repercussions for that,” Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “I think that would be way helpful for us to move the game forward.”
