Big 12 boss: 2028 ‘look-in’ eases CFP concerns
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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said he “wasn’t happy” with the league’s recently negotiated revenue distribution plan from the College Football Playoff, but he remains confident in the future of the conference while recognizing the football teams have to perform at a higher level.
In mid-March, all nine FBS conferences and Notre Dame leadership agreed to the next CFP contract, which will begin in 2026 and further separate the Big Ten and the SEC financially from the other leagues. Big Ten and SEC schools will each be making more than $21 million annually. ACC schools will get more than $13 million annually, while Big 12 schools will get more than $12 million annually.
Yormark said he pushed for a “look-in” in 2028, which is halfway through the six-year deal and gives the FBS commissioners an opportunity to reevaluate the economics and “see whether or not anything should be modified or adjusted.”
“Having that look-in made sense for a lot of different reasons,” said Yormark, who spoke to a small group of reporters Wednesday at the annual Fiesta Spring Summitt. “I certainly wasn’t happy with the distribution. I guess you could say in some respects I was satisfied. It was fine. But certainly not happy about it. And I don’t think our ADs or our coaches are either, but we’re going to continue to invest for the right reasons.
“We’re going to continue to build football. It’s at the core of what we do, and I’m excited about the future.”
Yormark said he doesn’t wake up every morning thinking about other conferences, and that the narrative about the growing power and separation of the SEC and Big Ten has been “overstated.” Those two conferences have the bulk of control over the future format, but the other leagues surrendered that in exchange for iron-clad guarantees.
“We spend a lot of time talking strategically about the direction of collegiate athletics and what’s in the best interest of everyone,” Yormark said. “Does the SEC and Big Ten break away from that from time to time and strategize together? I’m sure they do, but I will tell you the chemistry and culture amongst the four commissioners is extremely positive and, even though I’m relatively new in my job, I’d venture to say it’s the best its ever been.”
The CFP will unveil a 12-team format this season and next, but Yormark and the other commissioners on the CFP management committee haven’t determined what the sport’s postseason will look like in 2026 and beyond. There is strong momentum within the room for a 14-team field, and the commissioners did agree that there would be at least 12 teams in the future.
Yormark said more access for student-athletes is “a great thing,” but there is no timeline for deciding the future format and doesn’t expect any decisions “in the foreseeable future.”
“If we end up going to 14 and we can further enhance the championship experience for more teams and more student-athletes, that’s great,” Yormark said, “and I’m going to continue to bet on the Big 12 that we’re going to take some of those at-large spots. In theory, more is more. More is good, but the proof is in the details and I’m excited to see how this year plays out at 12.”
Yormark said he’d like to see the pros and cons of the 12-team format first before trying to modify it.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing to just play it out this year, but I’m just one of many,” he said. “… We’ll collectively make that decision.”
This week’s spring meetings marked the first time all 16 schools were represented in league meetings following a sweeping conference expansion that added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. Yormark said the league also discussed more access in the NCAA basketball tournament and the coaches “in theory” are for expansion. While he said he hasn’t thought about the number, Yormark said he’s “open to 76.”
“The tournament is one of the greatest spectacles in sports,” Yormark said. “It captivates hard-core fans and casual fans for all the right reasons and you don’t want to mess with something that’s great, but if there’s chances to modify it a bit … We owe it to ourselves to do that.”
Yormark said he understands the conference “didn’t perform probably as well” as others in the past decade of the CFP, but “history doesn’t always repeat itself.”
“There’s a lot to sell here, and I’m pretty good at selling,” Yormark said. “I’m going to continue to push the narrative for all the right reasons while we get better. … Now, we have to perform, don’t get me wrong. It all comes back to performance, and the coaches know that and the ADs know that. But my job is, as we continue to perform at a higher level, to create the narrative behind it.”
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Ryan S. Clark
Many of Mikko Rantanen’s greatest moments have come in a Colorado Avalanche sweater. It’s just that the most defining moment of his career came at their expense.
It wasn’t enough that the Dallas Stars were trailing by two goals. It was also the fact that Rantanen scored a hat trick in a string of four unanswered goals that saw his current team, the host Stars, eliminate his old team, the Avalanche, in a 4-2 win Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the American Airlines Center.
“Obviously, the feeling was incredible to win a series,” Rantanen said in his postgame media availability. “This series was not exactly what I expected. I expected a seven-game series, even before Game 1. The ups and downs in the series. … Belief was there with the group the whole time. Obviously, I was able to make a pay to get the first one and the crowd started to roll.”
The Stars, attempting to reach the conference finals a third straight time, will advance to the semifinal round in which they will await the winner of series featuring the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. That encounter will be decided Sunday in Game 7 in Winnipeg.
Soon, the Stars’ collective focus will shift to another Central Division foe. But for now? The attention before, during, and after the game, was on Rantanen.
Part of what made the Avalanche-Stars series arguably the most intriguing first-round series in either conference was the fact it placed two 100-point teams that are in championship window against each other. But, it also came with several subplots with the notable being the team that traded quite a bit to land Rantanen — with the hope he could win them a Stanley Cup now — needed him to defeat the team that he won a championship with back in 2022.
With one assist through the first four games, there was a discussion about if the Stars could manage to win with a sputtering Rantanen on top of the fact they were already without two of their best players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson.
Rantanen responded with a three-point performance in Game 5, and a four-point performance in Game 6 only to then have a hand in each goal on Saturday. His first goal came on the power-play with 12:12 remaining in the third period when he found enough space to fire a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood.
Then came the game-tying goal and the significance it carried. The Stars went on the power play went Avalanche forward Jack Drury was called for holding. Drury part of the trade package the Carolina Hurricanes used to get Rantanen in late January before they would trade him to the Stars.
Drury’s penalty opened the door for Rantanen to score a game-tying goal that might be one of, if not, his signature salvo. Rantanen skated into the Avalanche zone in a 1-on-3 before he split two players before going around the net for a wrap-around goal that went off the skate of Samuel Girard with 6:14 left.
Three minutes later, the Stars received another power-play opportunity that saw Rantanen along with another former Avalanche forward in Matt Duchene work together to find Wyatt Johnston for the game-winning goal.
In the final minute, the Avalanche pulled Blackwood in the attempt to grab a late goal and force over time. Instead? Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger withstood a barrage that officially ended when Stars forward Tyler Seguin got the puck out of the zone only for Rantanen to skate in on an open net for the hat trick with three seconds left.
“I couldn’t care less who scored for them, I really couldn’t,” Avalanche captain and left winger Gabriel Landeskog said when asked about what it was like to watch Rantanen score a hat trick. “Mikko is one of my best friends and I love him, but I couldn’t care if he scored or if somebody else scored.”
For eight full seasons, Rantanen was part of a homegrown movement that saw the Avalanche go from finishing with what was then the worst record in the salary cap era back in 2016-17 to become a perennial favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which did they did in 2023, while also becoming a model for the need to build through the draft.
Building through stars such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen allowed the Avalanche to become a success. As did the moves they made to get other key figures like Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews.
Like all teams in a championship window, the Avs were facing the prospect of possibly making a difficult decision. They had yet to agree to a new contract with Rantanen, who was a pending unrestricted free agent. Then, came the blockbuster trade that few throughout the league saw coming.
The Avalanche traded Rantanen in a three-team trade that saw them get Martin Necas and Drury along with two draft picks. Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes was limited to just two goals and six points in 13 games.
Despite the fact the Hurricanes are also among that cadre of championship contenders, Rantanen struggled to find cohesion in Raleigh. Rather than run the risk of watching leave for nothing in free agency, the Hurricanes put out feelers to a few teams with the Stars being one of them.
A long-time admirer of Rantanen, the Stars packaged two first-round picks, three second-round picks and former prized prospect Logan Stankoven to get Rantanen. They then signed him to an eight-year contract worth $12 million annually.
“It’s two things: It’s where our team’s at, and it’s Mikko Rantanen,” Stars general manager Jim Nill told ESPN back in March.
Rantanen finished the regular season with five goals and 18 points in 20 games prior to the showdown with his former team.
Not only did Rantanen’s hat trick condemn his former team to their second first-round exit since winning the Stanley Cup, but it continued a theme of former Avalanche eliminating their previous employers.
The Avalanche and Stars faced each other in last season’s Western Conference semifinal that saw Duchene, a former Colorado first-round pick, score the game-winning goal.
A year later, it was another former Avalanche first-round pick who delivered the devastating blow.
“It seems pretty fitting,” Johnston said about Rantanen. “Obviously, we want to win for each other and I think that goes a little extra when it’s a guy like that who is such a big part of our team and was there for a long time and everyone knows the trade that went on. It’s so awesome. We’re so happy as a group for him.”
As if Rantanen scoring a hat trick in a four-goal comeback wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that this is now the ninth consecutive Game 7 that Stars coach Peter DeBoer has won his career.
DeBoer’s nine wins in Game 7s broke a tie with Darryl Sutter for the most in NHL history. It was also DeBoer’s third game 7 wins with the Stars.
“I felt something was going to happen,” DeBoer said. “But I could not have predicted that.”
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