Big 12 likely to add championship game after Playoff snub

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said that the conference would likely add a conference championship game in 2016, according to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy. Bowlsby did not say with certainty that a 13th game would be added for the conference, but if deregulation legislation goes through, the conference could add a title game while still staying at only 10 teams.

“We’ll take a good look at it and weigh all the pros and cons. I surmise that we will probably move in that direction knowing what we now know. Until the rule changes, we won’t know for sure.”

The Big 12’s two Playoff hopefuls, Baylor and TCU, were both left out of the field by the selection committee, in part because they didn’t have the opportunity to play a conference championship game. The four Playoff entrants, Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, and Florida State, all won their respective conference title games.

“What we heard was that if we don’t go to a championship game, we’re at a disadvantage,” Bowlsby said. “If we don’t make changes, we’re potentially going into the season with a short stick in our hand.”

“My only objection -- let me be as clear as I can: the selection committee did a remarkable job -- but we didn’t hear about the 13th data point until the last day of the season [last year],” Bowlsby said. “That was my question today.”

Bowlsby’s main issue appears to be that they didn’t know how much a conference championship game would affect the committee’s decision, but committee chairman Jeff Long made it abundantly clear after the fact that Ohio State’s resume was boosted by the presence of a 13th game.