Following the implementation of a straight-seeding model for next season’s College Football Playoff, the Big 12 conference is set to discuss potential future postseason formats during its spring meeting in Orlando, Florida, this week.
The SEC has recently taken great interest in a 16-team playoff that would include the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large bids — known as the “5+11 model.” The Big 12 and ACC proposed the idea to the SEC and Big Ten earlier this month, and it has since gained traction among power conference leaders.
Utah Athletics Director and former CFP selection committee member Mark Harlan is strongly in favor of a 5+11 model, according to a report from Chris Vannini.
“I think the public and we agree that you have to win this thing on the field,” Harlan said to Vannini.
Harlan also believes that if there’s concern that such a model could lead to more playoff bids for the SEC and not the Big 12, then “Big 12, let’s win more games. Let’s get after it.”
The Big 12 comes off a 2024-25 campaign in which it struggled against the SEC and Big Ten, the two conferences that hold authority over any future postseason format. The Big 12 went 2-5 overall against the SEC, with its two victories coming over 2-10 Mississippi State and 7-6 Arkansas. Big 10 foes went 3-1 against the Big 12 in the regular season, though Kansas State earned the Big 12 a victory over the Big 10 in the postseason by taking down Rutgers, 44-41, in the Rate Bowl.
According to the latest projections from CBS Sports, only one Big 12 team — Kansas State — is slated to make the 12-team playoff next December as the 11-seed. To Harlan’s point, the conference must win its marquee games in nonleague play to have a chance at earning more than just one bid again.
The Utes open their 2025 campaign against a Big Ten opponent on Aug. 30, when they take on UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
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