Yormark: Big 12 'striving for' multiple CFP teams

FRISCO, Texas -- Big 12 champion Arizona State was the lone team from the league to reach the 12-team College Football Playoff last season.

It's incumbent on league members to improve on that output and get multiple teams into the CFP, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told ESPN on Wednesday.

"I think it credentializes our progress," Yormark said of having more than one school in the playoff. "I think we need to, and it's on the football programs to perform at a high level and to get there."

Arizona State lost to Texas in a double-overtime classic in Atlanta, which Yormark called "probably the most exciting game of the CFP."

The next step to him is clear: "We need multiple teams and we need to win a CFP game."

Which teams are the best candidates to do that heading into the 2025 season is still a mystery. The league is muddled at the top, with no clearly dominant program and at least a half-dozen that can make a case to be the preseason favorite.

The Big 12 did not conduct a preseason poll this year, in part because of the lack of clear separation between the top and bottom. Arizona State was picked last in 2024 and won the league. Oklahoma State was coming off a spot in conference title game and went winless in the conference.

Yormark said that as the league grows, it eventually will need teams to rise up as clear favorites. But initially, a "progression" is required.

"First, it's to make sure everyone's investing," Yormark said. "There's competitive balance, but then you need those outliers. You need those schools that emerge from the pack and be part of a national conversation year-in and year-out. And I think that's what we're striving for."

The case for the Big 12's strength is built around its experienced quarterbacks, headlined by Arizona State's Sam Leavitt. But the notion of any prohibitive favorite in the conference is foolish due to glut of solid teams.

Yormark, who recently agreed to a three-year contract extension, said he believes he has been able to help the league with strong direction in the wake of the departures of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. That encompasses the league's efforts to build out to its current 16-team roster, which includes the West Coast wing of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado.

"I came here to try to make a difference," he said. "I wanted another run where I could try to build something, and we're building something. I think we're building something pretty special here. And I don't think anyone would argue that what I inherited and what is there today, we've made incredible progress in a relatively short period of time.

"So I'm enjoying the job. I mean, listen, like any job you have your challenges. But I'm enjoying the job. I'm enjoying the space. And candidly, where collegiate athletics is going is closer to where I came from."