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Big 12 will not expand or have a championship game in 2015

Graham Watson
In an interview with Wendell Barnhouse from the Big 12 Digital Network, Commissioner Bob Bowlsby explains why the conference ultimately decided not to add a championship game to the football schedule.
In an interview with Wendell Barnhouse from the Big 12 Digital Network, Commissioner Bob Bowlsby explains why the conference ultimately decided not to add a championship game to the football schedule.

The Big 12 is not going to have a championship game.

That’s it. Finito. Stop asking.

Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said his membership looked at the prospect of having a championship game should the conference obtain a waiver from the NCAA, and decided it was not the right time to employ it.

“I think we’ll have the prerogative at some point in time to consider and implement a playoff game if we choose to, but our ADs have been very thoughtful about it and our CEOs have been very thoughtful about it,” Bowlsby said. “We’ve put in place a tiebreaker that will ensure that not only do all of our schools play each other, but the title isn’t going to be decided by who you didn’t play.”

The Big 12, last season, was criticized for not having a conference championship game despite the fact that it’s the only major conference in which every team plays every other team. It also cost the conference one of the four coveted playoff spots last season after one-loss TCU and one-loss Baylor both were supplanted by one-loss Ohio State for the final playoff spot.

College Football Playoff chairman Jeff Long said last year that the lack of a title game played into the decision to promote Ohio State over the Big 12 contenders.

The decision not to have a conference championship also prompted Bowlsby to reiterate that the Big 12 has no plans to expand “anytime soon.” The Big 12 membership is 10 programs and that’s what it’s going to be for the foreseeable future.

"It is my understanding at the present time that the majority of our presidents and chancellors believe 10 is the right number for us," Bowlsby said. "There are those that believe we should get larger and they feel strongly about it. There are those who believe we should stay at 10 and they feel strongly about it. And there are probably four or five in the middle who are persuadable one way or the other. And I think that's exactly where we're at. But at the present time, I don't think there's critical mass for expansion. It will continue to be a topic about which we spend at least a little time in every meeting talking about it. But until the majority shifts, it's a purely academic conversation."

Those two announcements inspired a Big 12 motto change. Last year, the conference touted the slogan “One True Champion,” which proved false when TCU and Baylor shared the conference trophy.

This year, the conference will go with “Every Game Matters,” which is a little more representative of what the conference is trying to boast with every team playing every other team in its round robin format.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!

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