Big 12 pursuing title game option, scrapping co-champions
Without a conference title game, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby knows his league could be handcuffed again when it comes to the final College Football Playoff rankings.
We saw it last year when TCU and Baylor were leapfrogged by Ohio State for the fourth spot after the Buckeyes’ Big Ten championship romp over Wisconsin. CFP selection committee chairman Jeff Long said that a team playing a 13th game against a quality opponent could provide a boost, so Bowlsby and the Big 12 are hoping the NCAA will give the league the option to play a title game despite having only 10 teams (the NCAA requires 12).
In the meantime, Bowlsby did his best to sell his league’s current round-robin format at the first day of the College Football Playoff meetings in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday.
“In the end, I think our regular season is better than anybody else’s regular season,” Bowlsby said, per ESPN.com. “How does that weigh in the equation? We play everybody and nobody else does. Is ours a better way of determining a champion or is theirs? Well, I don’t think you can do better than a round-robin. Whether we should have a title game or not? I’ve advocated before that we should deregulate that rule and conferences should be able to decide how they do that I think that will happen. If anything this probably hastens that, the fact that we got left out and that there is some talk about it.”
Above all, Bowlsby wants clarity on the impact a 13th game has on a team’s resume for inclusion in the final four. He said, per the Dallas Morning News, the first time the Big 12 heard about the potential effect a 13th game could have was “the Sunday after the selections were made.”
Bill Hancock, the CFP’s executive director, said that Ohio State’s championship game win “simply added to the resume.”
“People need to understand the risk/reward nature of conference championship games,” Hancock said. “If two other games had come out differently Dec. 6, the Big 12 could have had two teams in the playoff, and the conference would look like geniuses. Having said that, the decision about how to crown a champion is up to each individual conference.”
Despite what Hancock may say, Bowlsby is moving forward in pursuit of NCAA approval for the option to hold a conference title game, though he’s still not certain if it’s the best resolution.
From the Morning News:
So after some soul searching and discussion, the Big 12 is now pursuing NCAA deregulation that would allow it the option to hold a championship game with just 10 teams, instead of the current requirement of 12. Bowlsby said it could make its way out of the Division I Football Oversight Committee by this fall before a vote by FBS conferences.
Additionally, Bowlsby said we won’t see another co-champion scenario like last year.
Bowlsby said he expects conference athletic directors and coaches to finalize a three-way tiebreaker when they meet next week in Phoenix. The conference is doing away with multiple champs in football. The two-way tie will be broken by head-to-head competition, Bowlsby said. Several options are on the table for a three-way tiebreaker.
While the Big 12 at least wants the option of having a 13th game, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said at Tuesday’s meetings that the independent Fighting Irish are not interested.
“It’s not that there’s a 13th game,” Swarbrick said per ESPN.com. “It’s always going to be against a really good opponent. It’s the conference championship game. It’s not the aggregate number, it’s who you’re playing. There are going to be years where a team looks like they’re going to get in and gets upset in their conference championship game and they don’t get in. Did the 13th game help them? No. I’m not saying that’s a reason to do it or not do it, I’m just saying one year’s worth of experience with this system is way too small to draw any conclusions about how it will play out over time.”
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
