Interested in seeing what the CCG payout will be. It was estimated to be around 30M when it was announced.
http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=211258195 The Big 12 Conference has announced that the participating teams for its football championship game will be the two highest placed teams in the conference standings. “There are a number of advantages to matching our top two teams,” said Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. “Given our round-robin, nine-game scheduling model, it is expected the Big 12 champion will be uniquely positioned for College Football Playoff consideration. I would argue there will be no path more difficult than our champion’s, where it will have played every team in the Conference, faced at least one Autonomy Conference non-conference opponent, and then plays in our championship game. The guaranteed No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup will be a great game for our fans, and it’s hard to imagine a stronger position for a conference champion.” The Big 12 had co-sponsored legislation allowing conferences with less than 12 members to stage a championship game. With input from the league’s head football coaches, the athletics directors have moved forward with a 1 vs. 2 format. Beginning in 2017, the Big 12 football champion is assured to be on par with other league champions by having 13 data points for CFP selection committee evaluation. It is anticipated the host site for the 2017 Big 12 Football Championship game will be announced in the coming weeks.
Idiotic, what happens when two teams end up with 1 loss, with each one being against the other? Why should one win matter more over the other?
It shouldn't and just one of the reasons this is so dumb. Essentially it is just giving the 2nd best team in the conference a shot at knocking ourselves out of the CFP.
Even better: undefeated Baylor plays undefeated West Virginia the last week of the season. Then they play again in the "conference championship game".
I think the idea of a CCG in a round-robin 10 team league is ridiculous, but to be fair, this scenario can happen in any of the other conferences too.
I can't wait until a two loss second place team beats an undefeated first place team, and knocks them out of the playoff.
After today, it appears the Little 12 championship game will be for nothing more than a major bowl bid. The CFP doesn't seem likely.
Glad it happened. It's obvious when you watch the teams play - they're not very good. But for whatever reason they HAVE to be ranked high when they don't lose, despite not playing anyone. I've seen Baylor play, I've seen WVU play, they're not that good. I don't need UT and OKST to beat them to know that. Whatever.
This game would have sent Baylor or TCU to the playoffs over Ohio State 3 years ago. It's also going to be one of the better conference championships since it matches the top 2 teams in a conference. It's unlikely you see repeat matchups in the SEC and Big 10 since they have 14 teams but you have repeat matchups when leagues were at 12 teams. 4 of 5 the PAC 12 Championship Games features repeat matchups. You also sometimes have NFL teams meet in the 1st round of the playoffs after playing twice in the regular season. The NFL does not adjust seeding to avoid that either. They also play TWO round robins in the regular season. There is also something to be said about the value of a second game being bigger than the 1st since it will be on a neutral field. Someone said that you'll have bad teams knocking off favorites. The Big 12 was famous for that. A disparity like that is much less likely in top 2 seeded championship game. You don't dump the round robin schedule if you stay at 10 teams. Moving to arbitrary divisions while keeping the round robin seems dumber and has less of a point than taking the top 2 in the conference. They should call this the Baylor option since it would help teams with weaker non conference games the most. That being said, this game could only have hurt the conference last year when OU was not in danger of not making the playoffs. It certainly would help the big 12 this year if they had it but I don't think any team will be close to the top 4 for an additional game to matter. At the end of the day, it's also a better product. I would have watched TCU v Baylor 2.0 two years ago. I wouldn't have been as interested last year since I find OK St uninteresting. The ultimate answer is to go to a 8 team playoff where the power 5 winners go and 3 wild cards.
Big difference is even with a repeat matchup in other conferences, it still pitted division champs that likely did not play the same slate of conference teams versus round robin where everyome played the exact same teams including a head to head matchup. The NFL is not a good comparison for the same reason. This would be similar to the NFL adding a division championship game. But even then, at least there are 2 round robins in which the game could be the tiebreaker. With our current setup, the tiebreaker has already occurred, in some cases just the week before.
This is true but that's a different argument that I was responded to. It was mentioned MANY times on this thread that an inherent flaw with the new big 12 system when repeat matchups on face is more important than the first. You are addressing a different but VERY valid argument. There are a few ways to look at it. Having teams with different schedules makes a conference championship a necessity however the desire for a championship game is (at times) more of a motivation for leagues than a desire to expand and being compelled to have a conference championship. This was before you could have a conference championship game with 10 teams. I think that is most true with the AAC and it was a major factor for the Pac 12. Adding Utah and Colorado were not value adds. Although, there is all of the speculation that they were adding those teams to prevent having to take baylor in a big 12 merger but I don't know how much you could trust those rumors and I don't think a conference expands for that reason. You wonder if they would have expanded if they had the option to do a championship game with 10 teams. The Big 10 added Nebraska who is a great team however I question the financial value of that add vs Rutgers 4 years later which brought some North East (NY) TV sets. The value for a championship game for every conference is more motivated by money and a better chance to get into the BCS/Playoffs. Also, I think a +1 is desirable if the home team won the initial matchup. In 2014, TCU and Baylor finished with the same record buy Baylor beat TCU at home by 3 points. The NFL has a Home and Home round robin but the NCAA has alternating home games across teams. You are mis applying my arguments again. The NFL response was in regards to the idea that a repeat matchup mattering more than previous games doesn't make sense. The NFL doesn't care about that and they don't even try to avoid that in division games. A team could lose to a division opponent twice in the regular season but beat them in the playoffs and that is what matters. Saying "NFL" is not a one size fits all argument for the big 12 championship game so you can't say 1 thing about the NFL and expect it to dismiss other aspects that are still true despite the point you are making. . I agree with you that the NFL does not have a division tie breaker however I do not believe that supports your argument as much as you think. They don't have much of a need of one at all considering they have 2 rounds of round robin including a Home and Home which is much more fair than one team hosting a home game in a single season. The Home Field Advantage is (I believe) most pronounced in college football. Here are a couple articles that talk about it. They each analize 2 year periods in college football with different results however I don't believe either have a large enough samples size. The biggest argument for me is the stat about 1996 games-2013. http://sportsgambling.about.com/od/ncaafootballbetting/a/College-Football-Home-Field-Advantage.htm http://footballscoop.com/news/home-field-advantage-really-cracked/ (While a bit off the subject, it was interesting to note that both NCAA and NFL teams did much better straight up as favorites of 2.5 or less than they did of favorites between 3 and 5.5 points.) Doesn't the MLB have a division championship game if two teams finished tied in the overall standings DESPITE the regular season series? For example, if the Astros finished with the exact same overall record as the Rangers, they would still play a division "championship game" despite the fact the Rangers owned the Astros in the regular season. That might only happen in certain circumstances though. The Pro Team comparison has arguments for and against the big 12 game. It's not 1 size fits all. My point is that the pro leagues could have many of the same criticisms that we are charging against the big 12. At the end of the day, this system fosters a better product than a 10 team conference with arbitrary divisions and gives the higher ranked team the greatest opportunity at making the playoffs. If the higher ranked team loses then they don't deserve to be in the playoffs. It's less about protecting the top team and more about giving the chance for the top team to separate themselves from the other conference champs. There are exceptions to that, Ok St would not have made the playoffs if they beat OU but TCU and Baylor would have made the playoffs with a win against each other the year before. I plan on making a much longer post about the recent news not to expand the big 12 when I have the time. I will note that the competitive argument would have fallen flat this year considering Cincy is 4-4, BYU is 4-4 and UH is 7-2 but 5th in their division. I also want to note that UH's attendance last game was a dismal 35,000. I spent a year saying that they deserve the chance to show their support this year in attendance after last year but they went back to the old ways in their 5th home game this season. Very pathetic for any college team and it would be an embarrassment in the big 12. The argument about UH being a great team because Houston is such a big city makes it that much worse. It's also worth noting that Herman specifically called out the school last year about the same crap. Build a tiny stadium and can't even fill it after the program has gone out on a limb and spent way more money than they could. There are a lot of good things about UH but fan support is not one of them.
