A week after saying that the Big 12 would likely pursue the opportunity to stage a football championship game with only 10 teams (which at this point, is not possible due to NCAA rules), league commissioner Bob Bowlsby left the conference’s spring meetings in Phoenix with a different tone.
"I really have been proud of our athletic directors because they chose to respond to not being in the playoff rather than react," Bowlsby told ESPN.com. "I think they’ve been very thoughtful about it and continue to be thoughtful about it. We all believe that one year is not a long enough window or trial to draw any conclusions.
"We may find ourselves in better shape than some other conferences as a result of our model, not in spite of our model."
It was only a week ago however when Bowlsby said the following to CBSSports.com.
“What we heard is if we don’t go to a championship game we’re at a disadvantage. All things being equal, 13 games are better than 12 games. That’s what we heard. So that gives us clear enough direction that we’re coming in at least at a modest disadvantage. We need to do whatever we can to mitigate that.”
So all future plans for a Big 12 football title game are officially off.
A quick take…
Without having had time to work the phones on this decision, my gut is telling me that this is one of those situations where it is best for fans just to trust the people in charge. I mean, why would the Big 12’s athletic directors want to punish their schools?
If it was cut and dry better to go with a title game, they’d do it.
The question I do have: If the committee told you guys a week ago that not playing 13 games worked against the league, what changed?
