A 24-Team Playoff Could End the Conference Title Games. The Big 12’s Commissioner Says the League Would Replace Its Own.
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark told CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish that if College Football Playoff expansion ends conference championship games, “I’m going to replace it with something, for sure,” as On3 reported. He spoke at the league’s basketball media days in Kansas City on October 20, days after reports of a deal.
The reported deal is a 24-team field starting in 2027. It is a handshake agreement, not a signed contract, with a December 1 deadline looming.
- 24 — teams in the reported format: Power Four champions plus the top Group of Six team, with 19 at-large bids · Source: Associated Press
- $345M — a year, on average, ESPN would pay on top of its existing deal for the added games · Source: Associated Press and ESPN's Pete Thamel
- $140M — a year ESPN would get back from canceling the SEC, ACC and Big 12 title games it owns, for a net of about $205M · Source: ESPN's Pete Thamel and the Associated Press
- Dec. 1 — the deadline to change the playoff format for 2027 · Source: ESPN
On3 quotes him calling the title game “a huge tentpole moment” and saying he would like to replace it “with some type of conference football moment,” adding that it could be a basketball event. At media days he told the Deseret News that “our championship game has been very valuable” and that if change comes, “we will look to replace those events with other events.”
“We're in the event business, it drives a lot of fan engagement and excitement.”
Brett Yormark · Big 12 Commissioner · Oct. 20, 2026 · Deseret News
The stakes are visible in the game itself. About 86,000 attended last year’s Big 12 championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, and Texas Tech’s game against BYU averaged 8.99 million viewers, third among Power Four title games, per On3. In June, Yormark put the trade-off bluntly: “In order to go to 24 you’re going to have to do away with our champ game.”
According to the AP, the playoff and ESPN reached a handshake agreement over October 15 and 16. The top eight seeds would get byes and host, the first two rounds would be played on campuses, and major bowls would host the quarterfinals and semifinals, with the title game in late January. The current six-year contract is worth $7.8 billion.
Thamel reported that Fox would get back an amount in “the $50 million range” each year for the Big Ten title game it owns. Sources differ on the length of ESPN’s added term: Thamel reported five years through the 2031 season, the AP six.
Of that new $345 million, ESPN will only essentially be paying $205 million, as they are getting back $140 million annually from the cancelation of the three power conference championship games that ESPN owns the television rights to broadcast.
Breaking: The College Football Playoff is nearing a deal to expand to 24 teams, sources tell @PeteThamel. The new format will start in 2027 and is expected to come together in the near future, pending final approvals.
ESPN reported in June that any change to the playoff requires agreement from both the Big Ten and the SEC. As of June, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti had pushed 24 teams, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey favored 16 but said he was not opposed to 24, and playoff executive director Rich Clark said there were “more questions than answers.” Coaches unanimously backed 24 teams in an informal spring poll, per theScore, and Yormark has said the economics still need work. His own comments are conditional (“if there’s a point in time where change is made”), so they describe a plan if the field expands, not a decision.
The Protect College Sports Act (S. 4668), sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) with Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), cleared a 74-24 procedural vote in the Senate on September 15, per the AP. It would codify the House settlement’s 22% revenue-share cap, create a retention pool and allow conferences to pool media rights. Opponents include Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and the NAACP. Yormark told the Deseret News it is “the closest we’ve ever been.”
Whether the handshake becomes a signed contract by December 1, how long ESPN’s added term runs, whether the Big Ten title game also ends, and what the Big 12 would put in the title game’s place. Yormark has offered only ideas.
Reported talks between the playoff and ESPN would end conference championship games in exchange for a bigger playoff. The Big 12 says it would replace its own with an event, and nothing is signed.
