Oct 22, 2024; Kansas City, MO, USA; Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark speaks to media during Big 12 Women’s Basketball Media Day at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark hosted a press conference over Zoom Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s Big 12 championship game, and he like others around the sport, he had some words for the CFP committee.
“The (CFP) committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus resumes,” Yormark said. “Strength of schedule should matter. Wins against Power 4 opponents should matter.”
Yormark joined representatives from the ACC, South Carolina, and even Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin in voicing displeasures towards the group since rankings came out Tuesday.
Yormark pointed his angst towards the Group of five, but didn’t stop there.
“In no way should a Group of 5 champion be ranked above our champion,” Yormark said. “74% of the Big 12’s wins were against Power opponents this season. Meanwhile, the Group of Five is 11-80 versus Power Four teams this season. And in no way should a Group of Five champion be ranked above our champion.”
“ASU and ISU each played 10 games against the Big 12, SEC and Big 10, winning both P4 non-conference games against the SEC and Big 10, and winning seven of nine P4 conference games. Boise (State) played one game against the Big 10 and lost, and that was their only P4 opponent.”
He also brought up teams’ number of losses – seemingly pointing at Alabama.
“No three-loss team from a Power Four conference should get a bye over a two-loss champion from the Big 12.”
The complaints from all parties were different, and most brought up points that can easily be argued.
The only thing any of them agreed on was that the committee got it wrong, and both the Big 12 and ACC met with representatives considering a different model for the league this week.
A portion of Big 12 and ACC presidents gathered Tuesday in Dallas for presentations from two entities, each proposing new models for college football: Len Perna-led College Sports Tomorrow & SMASH Capital’s Project Rudy.
No Big Ten & SEC presidents attended, nor did Notre Dame.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 4, 2024
If anything is for certain, there will be conversations had this off-season, and the chaos of the last few might be right there with this one.
“At the conclusion of the season, obviously, the management committee will come together, and we’ll figure out what the format should look like moving forward. Do we need to improve it in any way? The one thing that I am concerned about, candidly, and something that I’ll address with Richard Clark at the right time is I need to better understand, and I think I speak on behalf of the full management committee and the commissioners, what are the key metrics that are being used as we think about rankings each week?”
“Because strength of schedule was something that was identified for me early in the fall as a very, very critically important metric,” Yormark said. “And I’m not sure that that has happened, at least to date.”
