Big 12 will bring back conference championship game in 2017
The Big 12 Conference made the long overdue decision to institute a conference championship football game once again for the first time since 2010.
The league voted unanimously Friday to bring the game back, which will start in 2017.
The Big 12 stopped staging a championship game when the league was reduced to ten teams in 2011. It had been the only Power 5 conference to not hold a championship game, and it was becoming clear that it was hindering their chances of fielding a team in the College Football Playoff. The 2014 season in particular brought the issue to light, when Ohio State leapfrogged TCU by winning their conference title game handily while TCU and Baylor split the spoils in the Big 12. The league only narrowly avoided the same fate in 2015, with Oklahoma sneaking in despite a bye on the season’s final weekend.
Not only will the game give the conference a better chance to put teams in the College Football Playoff, but Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby estimated that it could net the league $27-$28 million in added revenue.
It’s a move that the league had been considering for a while, and it simply had to happen to put the league back on an even playing field with the other Power 5 conferences.
