Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy Makes Case for Preferred 16-Team Playoff Format
In this story:
Oklahoma State is looking to be among the top in college football again in the near future, which makes the playoff format a massive topic.
Over the past few years, playoff expansion and format modification has been one of the hottest topics in college football. With the current 12-team format seemingly on the way out, a 16-team field will soon take over.
As Mike Gundy and the Cowboys look to navigate this new era of college football, it’s important for the program that the best 16-team format is used. The Big 12 has attached its support to the 5+11 format, which gives automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions and leaves 11 at-large bids. While other formats include more automatic bids distributed according to conference, Gundy explained at Big 12 Media Days why he supports the 5+11 format.
“As I listened to it and heard from all the other coaches, it made a lot of sense from the standpoint of, ‘Don’t we all wanna play the game and decide who should get in in the end?’” Gundy said. “And not just set it up to where certain conferences get in whether they don’t play as well as other schools. Because ultimately, we’re trying to find the best teams, whatever that number is, to get in a playoff, seed ‘em appropriately and then let ‘em play for a championship.”
This format seems to have gained momentum over the past few months and could ultimately be the form that the playoff takes in future years. Of course, the Big Ten and SEC are still pushing for more automatic bids, but as long as those two conferences don’t impose their will on the rest of the college football landscape, a 5+11 format looks likely.
While this format would take away some automatic bids from those top-tier conferences, it also takes away bids from the Big 12. Considering the Big 12 managed to get only one team in last year’s 12-team playoff, there is no guarantee that the conference would secure multiple bids in a 16-team format. In typical Gundy fashion, he had a simple answer for those concerns.
“I understand the backlash,” Gundy said. “‘Well, what if you only get one team in?’ Well, then the other teams need to play better. That’s what I would say to Oklahoma State. That’s what I would say to me as a head coach.”
Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.