Big 12 football is having its moment. Could an even bigger one be coming?

Don’t look now, but the Big 12 Conference, the nearly forgotten little engine that could, is having a moment.

The Nielsen television ratings might not fully reflect it, but the rest of the country is witnessing something of a college football awakening. The Big 12 has three undefeated teams, all ranked inside the top nine of the US LBM Coaches Poll, and suddenly finds itself front and center in the College Football Playoff race.

On the heels of BYU’s captivating fourth-quarter dismissal of previously second-ranked Notre Dame, a game seen by more than nine million viewers, comes the Big 12’s next showcase: No. 16 Houston at No. 9 Utah.

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It’s precisely the kind of moment Brett Yormark envisioned when he took over as Big 12 commissioner on Aug. 1, 2022.

“I’ve lived my life, and I’ve done this for years, usually I’m a pretty happy guy, but never satisfied,” Yormark told USA TODAY Sports. “So, I would tell you that when the rankings came out on Sunday, I was really happy, but not satisfied. And, there’s still a lot of work to be done. But my goal from Day 1, when I became commissioner, was to make sure that this conference in all sports, but in particular football, was relevant and part of the national conversation. And I think this year we certainly are part of both. We’re relevant. For all the right reasons.

“We’re part of the national conversations. The (BYU) win, I think, in many respects, credentialized all the hard work that our schools have put in over the last couple of years.”

Kalani Sitake’s BYU squad trailed for fewer than five minutes in the first half and fewer than eight minutes in the second during its upset of Notre Dame, which entered as a 10-point favorite and positioned to claim the nation’s No. 1 ranking after Georgia’s loss earlier Oct. 17.

“This is one game that we’re really excited for and proud of,” Sitake said after the Cougars’ 28-24 win, “but we’ve got to get ready for the next one, too.”

That comes Saturday at Central Florida.

Yormark, who attended BYU’s win against Notre Dame and will be at the Kansas State-Arizona State conference matchup this week, points to the investments Big 12 schools have made in football, and athletics more broadly, as a driving force behind the league’s resurgence.

“Obviously, they’re investing at a high level. They understand the importance of football. They’re raising the bar,” Yormark told USA TODAY Sports. “Our board is certainly aware that athletics sits at the front porch of their institutions and football drives so much value when you think about enrollment and philanthropy and community engagement. For all the right reasons, the support and investment in football is happening."

Could that resurgence produce a second College Football Playoff invitation for the Big 12 for the first time?

Through the first two iterations of the expanded 12-team CFP, the Big 12 has twice produced the No. 4 seed, and no one else.

Yormark believes that can change.

“Listen, I said at (Big 12) media days that we’d have multiple teams in the CFP,” Yormark emphasized. “I didn’t know if it was going to be two or three, but I think right now we want as many members in the CFP as we can get, and certainly multiple teams is something that we’re striving for, and I feel really good about it.”

Yormark, a former business collaborator with hip-hop icon Jay-Z, believes the investment from Big 12 members, perhaps nowhere more dramatically than Texas Tech, has helped spur a similar approach throughout the conference.

“I think that the school, everyone across the board is investing, and it’s nice to see your return on your investment,” Yormark said. “That’s truly important, and many of our schools are seeing that. You just think about it. This year, six teams have been ranked this season in the top 25 (polls), which is terrific. A few have been on the outside looking in."

And Yormark isn’t thinking only about where the Big 12 stands today.

He carries a vision for elite events in whatever comes next. A 24-team CFP appears increasingly possible, while conference championship games in football, including the Big 12’s record-setting 85,000-fan event last December, could eventually go the way of the old redshirt rules. Utah coach Morgan Scalley previously told USA TODAY Sports he strongly supports a model featuring preseason bowl games.

For a commissioner who has made disruption part of the Big 12’s identity, any fundamental change to the postseason would create an opportunity to try something different.

“For us as a conference, we live by the mantra of being a different league; we do like to break boundaries,” Yormark said. “I think if a championship game goes away, and as I said (Tuesday, Oct. 20), we’re not there just yet with the expansion to 24, but should something happen and the championship games go away, we’re going to want to replace it.

“We’re in the IP (intellectual property) business, and it drives our narrative and our profile. It drives engagement with our fans. So we don’t know exactly what that looks like, although we’ve been ideating. But sooner than later, we’ll start crystallizing that."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big 12 football is having its moment. Could an even bigger one be coming?