Baylor head coach Art Briles was critical of Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby following the Bears’ 38-27 win over Kansas State on Saturday.
Briles is upset that Bowlsby planned to term Baylor and TCU co-champions of the Big 12 even though Baylor beat TCU head-to-head. The Big 12’s entire campaign for the season was that they would have “one true champion” since all their teams would face each other. That was Bowlsby’s way of making up for a lack of a conference championship game.
By deeming TCU and Baylor co-champions — both finished 11-1 overall and 8-1 in conference play during the regular season — Briles feels Bowlsby is not sticking to his word. What’s worse is that Bowlsby may be damaging the conference’s chances of having a team in the college football playoff (Baylor and TCU could split votes, allowing Ohio State to get in as the fourth team).
“If you’re gonna slogan around and say ‘one true champion’ and all of the sudden you’re going out the backdoor instead of the front? Don’t say one thing and do another,” Briles said to the media after the game.
Not only did Briles criticize Bowlsby during his postgame press conference, he also confronted the commissioner on the field after the game.
Despite the Bears beating the Horned Frogs straight up, many believe TCU is the better team thanks to their overall body of work and strength of schedule. Briles didn’t care about that talk and instead played to his crowd after the win.
“As the Big 12 states, there’s one true champion. It’s the Baylor Bears! It’s the Baylor Bears!” Briles chanted to the crowd after the game.
In his interview with ESPN after the game, Briles reiterated that his team beat TCU straight up and should be ranked ahead of them.
The irony in this whole situation is that this exact scenario was raised to Bowlsby prior to the season and the commissioner did not seem worried:
