I know I am a little late to the party in addressing the Big 12's announcement a couple of days ago that the conference with the slogan "One True Champion" will now actually crown one football champion. I wanted to give it some thought before just throwing a story up about it.
I thought last year was a debacle with a tie atop the Big 12 standings and the conference naming two champions. I think that may have been a subconscious hit to the conference in voters' minds. I have also let it be known on this site that I am not a fan of a conference championship game in a conference with a 10-team, round robin format. At this point, a tiebreaking system is the best possible solution for the conference to name a champion. In an ideal world I think most would agree adding at least two strong teams to the conference and going the divisional route with a championship game is a better alternative based on the current college championship system. The chances of that happening at this point seem to be further and further away. The Big 12 commissioner, Bob Bowlsby, spoke again a few days ago about how he is happy with the current Big 12 roster of teams and adding teams isn't on the agenda for the conference. He could be saying one thing and working to do another, but he hasn't waivered from this stance in quite awhile so I would assume he is being forthright in this case.
Regardless, I feel like this tiebreaker is a step in the right direction. The rules for the tiebreakers are as follows:
1) If two teams are tied:
a. The head-to-head winner will be crowned champion.
2) If three or more teams are tied:
a. The conference records of the three or more teams will be compared against each other.
b. The conference records of the three or more teams will be compared against the next highest placed team(s) in the conference (4, 5 and 6....)
i. When comparing against the next highest placed teams, a two-way tie among the next highest placed teams will be broken by head-to-head before the comparison begins.
ii. If more than a two-way tie exists among the next highest placed teams, record against the collective tied teams as a group will be used.
c. Scoring differential among the tied teams. The team with the lowest difference between points scored and points allowed in games vs. the tied teams are eliminated from consideration.
d. Draw (In the event steps 1-3 cannot break a multi-team tie the champion will be determined by draw at the conference office).
As long as Tech either won or wasn't involved, I would love for the championship to come down to a draw one season. I think it would be such as huge attention draw as well as huge black eye for the conference that it may actually force The Longhorns...oops I meant Bowlsby....the consider adding teams to the conference.