"Kansas State would have been the Big 12 champ": CFB insider ponders upon idea of 2 teams from Brett Yormark's league making Playoff

While both the SEC and Big 10 are trying to leverage their way into getting more automatic bids in the expanded College Football Playoff format, Commissioner Brett Yormark's Big 12 may benefit.

The College Football Playoff is moving to a slightly different qualification model while retaining the 12-team model in 2025. Instead of giving an automatic bid to conference champions to Power Five schools, teams for the playoffs will be picked based on the rankings by the committee by the end of the regular season.

Amid the discussions about potential multi-bid leagues heating up, college football insider JD PicKell believes the Big 12 might just sneak in two teams. On Sunday's show, PicKell outlined a scenario in which the Big 12 sends both its title game winner and a high-performing at-large contender into the playoff field.

“Not as crazy as it sounds," PicKell said via On3 (0:45 onwards). "Also, college football—pretty wacky sport, right? It's so weird, it's so crazy that it just might happen. It's how I feel about it.

"Now, I'm not going to predict it right now. We'll give you our playoff prediction as we get closer to the season. But when you search back in the memory bank, y’all—this would have happened in 2022 if we had had the 12-team playoff at that point in time."

PicKell referenced the 2022 season to point out how close the league came to doing exactly that — had the expanded format existed then.

"Remember TCU? They ran the table, went undefeated in the regular season, and lost to a Will Howard-led Kansas State team in Jerry World," PicKell said. "TCU still got into the College Football Playoff, but Kansas State won the Big 12.

"So in that 12-team model, I’m sure TCU would have made the playoff as a one-loss team from the regular season, but Kansas State would have been the Big 12 champ.”

JD PicKell reveals how Big 12 might be able to send two teams

In his discussion further, analyst JD PicKell revealed the usual suspects out of the Big 12. They'll likely be from "Arizona State, Kansas State, or Iowa State." But about the potential second suspect, he said:

"One team needs to separate, run the table, and be dominant enough—probably with no more than one loss on the resume," PicKell added. "If you’re a team from the Big 12 trying to get in as an at-large bid, you need a junkyard dog with a couple of scratches, bruises, some time under the heavy bar—then show up in Jerry World and win the football game, a la Kansas State in 2022.”

Apart from teams named by PicKell, teams like Baylor, TCU, Colorado and Texas Tech can be those teams who may get into the 2025 College Football Playoff.