The big news out of Big 12 meetings is that ostensibly "...the Big 12's best chance to reach the College Football Playoff is to expand to 12 teams and stage a conference championship game..." Dodd on CBS

The research is from an analytics firm hired by the league.

The numbers run by Chicago-based Navigate Research show the Big 12 has a 4-5 percent better chance of reaching the top four in the CFP by adding two teams, playing one less conference game and holding a championship game, commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday.

Can some of the numbers people around here discuss this? There have been exactly two CFB Playoffs. One where TCU or Baylor was hosed, mostly because they are TCU and Baylor and another where OU made the playoffs (even though Texas pushed them around the Cotton Bowl!!!).

The Big 12 is arguably the one P5 league that does it right (true round robin), & somehow that's put them at a disadvantage.

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) May 3, 2025

Agreed. This bums me out. Everybody plays everybody. You don't end up with mediocre Iowa ducking everybody and getting to go to the Rose Bowl (how'd that go?). One True Champion!

It's all about the cash. The arithmetic starting to potentially look like the networks increased $ for a championship game, etc. is greater than the newly decreased size of the slices of pie bringing in two new squads.

Better summary from SB Nation here.

Can't wait to road trip Cincinnati in November!

Thoughts?