The Big 12 was "able to win a key compromise" yesterday at the NCAA convention in San Antonio that would "allow it to hold a conference title game with 10 members because it plays a round-robin schedule," according to Chuck Carlton of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said that it was "not certain the Big 12 would immediately implement a title game." The Big 12 is the only Power 5 conference without a title game. The Big 12 ADs and university presidents are "scheduled to meet Feb. 4-5." Bowlsby "estimated that a conference title game could generate" $25-30M annually before expenses. ESPN "would have the option on the TV rights," and although a title game in '16 is possible, '17 is a "more reasonable target date." TCU AD Chris Del Conte: "Now we're not talking about a hypothetical but how we moved forward as a league. It gives us a lot of meat on the bone to chew." Carlton writes the "biggest takeaway and the biggest disappointment for schools like Cincinnati, BYU, Houston, UConn and Memphis is how much the Big 12 wanted to avoid expansion." Bowlsby "didn't totally rule out the possibility at some time in the future, just not now" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 1/14). In Houston, David Barron notes the 40-member panel that is in charge of day-to-day activities for D-I athletics "voted 7-2, based on conference affiliations," on the rules change. The ACC and AAC "voted against, and the Pac-12 did not have a representative to vote" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/14).
DIVIDED SKY: USA TODAY's Dan Wolken notes the Big 12 initially, along with the ACC, had "proposed full deregulation of championship games." But the Big Ten "countered last month with an amendment that required divisional play in leagues with fewer than 12 members; a wrench targeted more at the ACC, which had previously been attached to some unconventional ideas for producing a championship game matchup." But the Big 12 "had no interest in two five-team divisions," and the thinking was that the Big Ten’s amendment "could force the Big 12 into expanding if it felt a championship game was necessary in the playoff era." The new rule will also "allow the Sun Belt, which has fewer than 12 members, to explore a championship game" (USA TODAY, 1/14).
