Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby yesterday said that not landing one of its co-champions in the inaugural CFP field "was a shock" to the conference, but "not so much that it will compel them to immediately seek expansion," according to Schroeder & Wolken of USA TODAY. He added that it "appears the lack of a 13th game hurt" Baylor and TCU's CFP chances, but that Ohio State's "huge final impression, a 59-0 win Saturday against a highly ranked Wisconsin team, probably made the biggest impact on the committee's decision to rank the Buckeyes fourth." Bowlsby: "Adding two schools for the purpose of getting to 12 (to have a league championship game) would be among the poorest reasons to do it" (USA TODAY, 12/9). Bowlsby said that he believes the Big 12 "not having a title game 'had a bearing' on co-champions Baylor and TCU missing out." He added that "no decision was made about if the conference would have a 13th game in the future if permitted by the NCAA." He also said that Big 12 ADs "will decide if one Power 5 nonconference opponent is required in the future, but added that each program [is in] different stages of development" (ESPN.com, 12/8).
FORMATTING ERROR? In Dallas, Chuck Carlton writes the Big 12's options "are limited if it feels it needs a title game to be competitive." It can either "push its request to the NCAA to deregulate title game rules or add at least two more teams and go back to two divisions." Neither choice "is particularly appealing" (
DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 12/9). In K.C., Blair Kerkhoff writes it is "natural to wonder if the Big 12’s structure, which the conference considers a strength, works against it in perception." Only the Big 12 "plays a complete conference schedule," which "became a major source of pride for a league that had to rebrand itself when it realigned to 10 teams and dropped its conference title game." The format "has cost the Big 12 in recent years when Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Baylor lost perfect records with league road losses in November against teams they might not have faced when the league had 12 teams and played eight conference games" (
K.C. STAR, 12/9).
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: CBSSPORTS.com's Jon Solomon wrote it is "hard to say what the committee's dynamics inside the room were like." CFP Selection Committee members other than Chair Jeff Long "are not available to speak with the media until after the national championship game." Long "painted a picture of a 'seven-week grind' with lots of travel but camaraderie between members." Long throughout the process "often cited the value of input by the former coaches on the committee," Tom Osborne, Tyrone Willingham and Barry Alvarez. Long added that former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the committee's lone female member, "held her own in the committee room" (CBSSPORTS.com, 12/8).
