Big 12 Commissioner Yormark reacted to the release of the fifth set of rankings by the College Football Playoff Committee this past Tuesday. The rankings garnered criticism from Brett Yormark as the Big 12 teams making it into the top 25 of the College Football Playoff Committee’s rankings were Arizona State, Iowa State, BYU, and Colorado. The top two teams in the conference, Arizona State and Iowa State, ended the regular season 10-2 with Arizona State being ranked 15th while Iowa State ranked 16th.
The two schools are set to face off in the Big 12 championship game on Saturday, Dec. 7th. While this game is set to mark a pivotal point in the Big 12 conference’s history, following the exit of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, Brett Yormark is already looking ahead past his conference’s championship game.
Brett Yormark questioned the committee’s criteria for ranking teams above Big 12 Teams
With the 10th spot in the rankings going to Boise State, a non-power four conference team, the College Football Playoff Committee made it clear that a group of five conference champion could qualify for a first-round bye ahead of a power four conference winner (like Arizona State or Iowa State). Boise State is set to play UNLV in the Mountain West Conference Championship on Friday, Dec. 6th, where a win would certainly push them to be a top-four-ranked conference championship winner.
On Wednesday, Dec. 4th Brett Yormark spoke out about the committee’s decision on where to rank Big 12 teams. Yormark’s defense leaned on resumes and strength of schedules. “The committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus resumes … team logos and conference logos,” Yormark said Wednesday, according to Arizona Sports’ Damon Allred.
A closer look at Boise State’s impressive 11-1 record does show that perhaps their most impressive win this season was against UNLV, beating them 29-24. However, a closer look at Arizona State’s most remarkable win against BYU shows a marginally better victory. In the current College Football Playoff rankings, BYU is only two spots ahead of UNLV. As for Iowa State, their resume includes several victories against not-so-remarkable Big 12 teams (Kansas State, Cincinnati, and UCF).
It appears as though Yormark’s perspective on this would be that Boise State beating the same team twice is not impressive enough to boost them into a final ranking higher than the two remaining Big 12 options. Especially, since Boise State failed to beat Oregon earlier this year as that was their only scheduled power four conference game this season.
Big 12 Commissioner Yormark expressed worry over three loss Clemson
Another looming possibility Yormark expressed concern over was the prospect of a three-loss Clemson beating SMU this Saturday in the ACC Conference Championship game. This could create a situation where Clemson would be ranked in the final College Football Playoff rankings higher than the eventual Big 12 conference champion. Hypothetically, this would happen if the committee felt that Clemson beating SMU, currently ranked number eight, equated to a better final ranking over the best Big 12 team.
Such a choice would remind some of the committee’s decision last year on where to rank the ACC champion in the final rankings. The exclusion of the undefeated ACC Conference Champion in 2023 (Florida State) from College Football Playoffs seemed justified as they lost 63-3 to Georgia in the Orange Bowl. As the final rankings loom, the question of whether the committee will factor in their recent reluctance to rank ACC Champions over other Power conferences this year will certainly be one to watch out for.
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