The Big 12 and the ACC had previously applied to deregulate the requirement that currently requires that conference championship games to only be played between divisional champions. By deregulating this rule, the Big 12 could play that championship game, but our buddy, Jim Delaney, Big Ten commissioner, filed a last-minute amendment to thwart the Big 12 and ACC’s efforts. ESPN’s Heather Dinich broke the news and writes about the situation:
Delany is looking for more specific answers from Bowlsby and ACC commissioner John Swofford, who together submitted the original proposal to loosen the NCAA’s restrictions on how conferences hold title games. Delany wants to know exactly how the Big 12 and ACC would determine their respective champions if given complete liberty.
The end result here is that what Bob Bowlsby thought would be a pretty simple process has turned into a not-so-simple process and there’s no lay down by the Big Ten on the matter. Bowlsby essentially acknowledged that the only way to solve the issue was for the Big 12 to expand:
“We’re trying to work our way through it, but I’m less certain of the outcome than I was before,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told ESPN.com on Sunday, just hours after Oklahoma slid into the College Football Playoff at No. 4. “We don’t think we ought to be forced into adding schools in order to have a championship game, but it could end up that way.”
It should be acknowledge that it appears that the problem is with the ACC, who doesn’t have a round-robin format, so there’s no real clear way for the ACC to choose their top two teams other than just somewhat arbitrarily.
Delany is looking for more specific answers from Bowlsby and ACC commissioner John Swofford, who together submitted the original proposal to loosen the NCAA’s restrictions on how conferences hold title games. Delany wants to know exactly how the Big 12 and ACC would determine their respective champions if given complete liberty.
And if that’s not bad enough, Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott all but says that it’s unfair that the Big 12 doesn’t play a championship game, via CBS Sports:
“I’d like to see more consistency (between conferences) rather than less,” Scott said. “I’d like to see the Big 12 go to a championship game. I don’t think it’s good or fair to see a conference not have to win that extra game and have that extra opportunity both for a win and a loss. I don’t like the idea that a champion can be in the clubhouse and not put it on the line when, in this case, there are strong teams in other conferences that if they lose can be out of the playoff.”
I sorta agree with Scott here in that the Pac 12 probably did have the second best conference of the Power Five and not one of their teams is playing in the Final Four. I’d also agree that “fairness” has nothing to do with anything regarding the NCAA.
With Bowlsby’s quotes, it definitely opens the door for the talk of expansion, which means that we get to talk about all of the usual suspects once again, Cincinnati, Tulane, BYU, Houston, etc. I think we all know why the Big 12 doesn’t want to dilute the product, namely they have to share that pile of money, but it appears that the rest of the Big Five is growing weary of the Big 12 (and I guess the ACC to an extent, although they’re hardly ever mentioned like the Big 12 is). It seems that it’s just a matter of time, although the Big 12 is at least a year behind where they should be, maybe two, so look for something to change by 2025.