Big 12 Announces How Championship Game Participants Will Be Decided

[madcow12]

In a statement released Friday, the Big 12 has announced that it will not split its 10 teams into two divisions – as had been debated. Instead, starting in 2017, the two best teams in the league will play for the conference title in a championship game at a neutral site. In short, No. 1 will play No. 2 for the league title.

As a reminder, the Big 12 “co-sponsored” legislation that allows conferences with less than 12 members to hold conference title games. It’s a move meant to allow the league to stay on-par with the other four power conferences regarding total games played.

Here’s the official statement from league commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

“There are a number of advantages to matching our top two teams,” said Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. “Given our round-robin, nine-game scheduling model, it is expected the Big 12 champion will be uniquely positioned for College Football Playoff consideration. I would argue there will be no path more difficult than our champion’s, where it will have played every team in the Conference, faced at least one Autonomy Conference non-conference opponent, and then plays in our championship game. The guaranteed No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup will be a great game for our fans, and it’s hard to imagine a stronger position for a conference champion.”

ESPN’s Brett McMurphy says that Arlington, Texas is the favorite to land the first title game in 2017.

http://thespun.com/big-12/baylor/big-12-championship-game-rules

 

[gordo107]

Pathetic. Soon as an undefeated team looses to a one or two loss team in the Champ Game, it will be stopped. The Big 12 is a joke, zero leadership and zero vision.

 

[DHHorn]

Pathetic. Soon as an undefeated team looses to a one or two loss team in the Champ Game, it will be stopped. The Big 12 is a joke, zero leadership and zero vision.

The other conferences could have this same scenario...

 

[gordo107]

The other conferences could have this same scenario...

They dont play a round robin schedule. If someone runs the table, they are champs. Period.

 

[bubba2023]

It was stupid to add a conference championship game, so there is no smart way to determine who plays in a stupid game.

 

[clob94]

Do you know how hard it is to beat a good team twice in the same season?

Bowlsby is a fvcking clown who needs to be taken out behind the barn and put down.

 

[misterTeasyEmalcomXf'inAkicksome]

Pathetic. Soon as an undefeated team looses to a one or two loss team in the Champ Game, it will be stopped. The Big 12 is a joke, zero leadership and zero vision.

I tend to agree with you as far as the "zero leadership and zero vision" part, but at this point, I'm not sure this was the worst thing...? I guess? I mean, the opportunities missed in expansion a while back are pretty much unforgivable, and I think sealed the fate of the conference. But I don't think there really were any good expansion options that checked enough of the boxes and fixed enough of the problems to expand now.

I have argued a lot that a conference championship game doesn't make any sense in a conference where everyone plays each other, and honestly it seems like it can mostly hurt the conference since it means that there's no way that the Big 12 can now end with its second best team as a 1-loss team and the top team unbeaten (since that second team will have to have at least 2 losses for the top team to remain unbeaten). I've argued and argued that a 9 game conference schedule ought to be uniform across the FBS division so the SEC can't stash their extra L's in OOC opponents that only one team faces rather than a team that plays everyone else in their division and more teams in their conference... or that the most common strength of schedule and win/loss statistics that are used are biased towards teams that play SEC-style OOC schedules and should be reevaluated. And I've argued that a championship game only adds to that.

But the replies I get, from rational and irrational sports fans alike, seem to be that A) the 13th data point is somehow magically important and that people can't conceptualize the concept that winning 11/12 or 12/12 games can be as good or as challenging as winning 12/13 or 13/13 and that B) the Big 12 gets more money for having a championship game and, if the conference's fate is sealed and it's going to fall apart eventually anyway, why not get some extra money between now and when it DOES end.

I agree it's dumb, but I don't think it's as dumb as expanding with the current candidates would have been, and if you HAD to have a championship game, I'd rather it be 1 vs 2 than "divisions" in a conference where everyone plays everyone already. If you just haaaave to have this game, and it's going to be a repeat, make it the biggest game you can make it, not just something that will definitely be lost in the shuffle of championship week by having a repeat of an even less anticipated match up.

For the record, I'd still prefer that there wasn't going to be a championship game at all, but the Big 12 is chasing money (which apparently the championship game helps with) and perception (which apparently Bowlsby and company are really bad at selling, so they're adding a championship game to play by the perception rules that everyone else are pushing). So I'm not saying "great plan!" But I'll say "well, at least you didn't pick the worst plan...?"

It sucks that that's where the leadership in this conference has brought us to. "Well, at least you didn't pick the worst plan...?"

 

[dj701919]

I'm going to laugh my ass off, when Boob loses out on going to the playoff because he gets beat by some 2 loss team that he's already beaten.

 

[dtrain87]

This league is ran by LOSERS!!! The teams that should have stayed are all doing great, save for Missouri and the teams that were added were also nothing special. Why have a title game when you know who won the league since the all play one another? Does the NFC east champ have to play the 2nd place team to see who won the division? No!!!

 

[DHHorn]

This league is ran by LOSERS!!! The teams that should have stayed are all doing great, save for Missouri and the teams that were added were also nothing special. Why have a title game when you know who won the league since the all play one another? Does the NFC east champ have to play the 2nd place team to see who won the division? No!!!

More money

 

[memhorn]

Dumbest thing I have seen. I will laugh my ass off when a 2- 3 loss team knocks off zero loss team that WOULD have gone to the playoffs, but for this stupidity.

 

[Cotton #12]

a

More money

Yes,now that is a reason, more money made in someones pocket.Fans will come,it will be a sellout.

 

[JHop6714]

As a fan, I think it's fun to watch a Big XII championship game. I'm excited about it. And it presents no greater threat to knocking us out of the playoff than any of the other conferences' championship games. I am also in favor of staying in and keeping the Big XII, because it's our best chance to win a conference and make it in.

That being said, I think we need more teams and more legitimacy. Passing on expansion was a big mistake. It would've rejuvenated the excitement surrounding the conference, brought in some new blood, and kept things going for a while. If the teams end up good at football, it makes the conference stronger. If not, we get some additional cupcake games. If you look at Michigan's schedule, since the B1G is so large now, Michigan plays several easy teams. Rutgers, Illinois, Maryland... It would be nice to have a few more beatable teams in a Big XII division, other than Kansas, to get some wins each year.

 

[misterTeasyEmalcomXf'inAkicksome]

That being said, I think we need more teams and more legitimacy. Passing on expansion was a big mistake. It would've rejuvenated the excitement surrounding the conference, brought in some new blood, and kept things going for a while. If the teams end up good at football, it makes the conference stronger. If not, we get some additional cupcake games. If you look at Michigan's schedule, since the B1G is so large now, Michigan plays several easy teams. Rutgers, Illinois, Maryland... It would be nice to have a few more beatable teams in a Big XII division, other than Kansas, to get some wins each year.

Respect the opinion about the Big 12 Championship game (though mine differs slightly) but completely disagree with your theories on expansion. The Big 12 has a perception problem. Look, there have been years that the Big 12 (both pre and post realignment) has been as strong or stronger, top-to-bottom, as any conference out there. This year definitely isn't one of those years... but it has happened. Since the 4 teams left though, we are down several "name brand" schools. That doesn't mean that the schools in the conference right now who aren't named Texas or Oklahoma can't be top teams nationally... there have been years that have shown that it's true. But a big part of that is when they beat the name brand schools. If the Big 12 were able to add ACC teams back when that was a possibility then they could have gotten some of those types. They didn't, and what's left and willing to make the jump isn't going to help with the perception problem.

The Big 10, on the other hand, wasn't suffering from a perception problem. Sure, from time to time you might hear about them being slow. They'll have a bad season where most of their schools get beat in bowls here or there. They'll be compared poorly with the SEC. BUT... they have Ohio State and Michigan. They have Wisconsin, Penn State (who I think most feel will eventually recover from the scandal aftermath). They added Nebraska first because, despite not bringing the biggest media market, they are a name brand football program. They could afford to add some schools that might not have the football reputation that others have. And even then, they didn't dig down into the MAC, AAC, or C-USA. They pulled teams that were in BCS conferences back before the BCS era came to a close. And they are both THE state university for the states that they are in. And both states were outside the Big 10 footprint that previously existed. And both states are fairly populous. And even beyond their states, they are near major metropolitan areas and desirable markets. And they made geographical sense given their previous members. So yeah, despite not being regulars in the top 25... they both had a lot going for them. They checked a lot of boxes.

Looking at the Big 12 expansion candidates, it was more.... this one checks that box, but only that box. This other one has a couple of good points to it, but has this one major disadvantage. These ones don't really check any of the boxes we're looking for. There just wasn't enough going for any 2 to 4 of them to warrant pissing off the TV networks and going against their wishes (which, if somehow the Big 12 survives beyond the end of the GOR, could be pretty disastrous for future contract negotiations). And changing the schedule so that instead of playing KSU or WVU every year, we're suddenly replacing them with Memphis and USF... I don't know, it seems like any excitement that might come from the newness of it all (if there would be any) would be wiped out pretty quickly as either we end up with basically a new annual lite game.... or worse, we start losing to schools like that.

No, I'm the guy who'd rather see us play big name teams and lose a few times until we're back to winning those types of games than to add more filler to the conference to pad our stats and our record. I go to these games and pay for the tickets. I'd rather they be good games. Suggesting we need more easy wins isn't a winning argument with me.

 

[big_country90]

WVU fan here...I'm not sure what the angst is over this decision. We have a 9 game conference schedule, which just so happens to cover every team. Then, the top two teams in the regular season slug it out for the title. What is so different or so odd about that? Many of the Big 12's own fans have jumped on this bandwagon where we bash the league every chance we get. The dust will finally settle next year and the media might just get off our backs, now that we have a championship game like the other power leagues. While I would have liked to expand, I think we're ok now that we have the championship game in place. I think it would benefit us all to calm down and take a step back. Support your team and let things work themselves out.