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Wake Up Big 12 Fans
Published: 7/4/2011 1:05 PM
Last Modified: 7/4/2011 1:08 PM

Will the lack of a conference championship game hurt the Big 12?

Of course, possibly big-time.

High quality scheduling is what now gets teams into BCS bowls.

Look at OU in the conference tie-breakers. The highest BCS rating was the tie-breaker. Scheduling accounted for the high rating.

What if OU, OSU and Texas A&M tie this season: Biggest non-conference win takes it.

Losers hate tough scheduling. Look where the poster team for chicken scheduling is: Kansas State is nowhere.

But tough scheduling is one of the things the slightly overrated OU AD has done: Stoops hiring, great. Coale hiring, good. Capel hiring, horrendous. Baseball hiring, lousy. Football scheduling, brilliant.

The only good thing the BCS does is reward tough scheduling.

OU's game at Florida State is fantastic. If the Sooners win that one, and if OSU holds up its end by getting through those tortuous road conference games, the late regular season finale between those two could get the winner to the national title game. But that's the only way it happens, with two great long shot seasons. Otherwise, the favorites winning the conference title games will be the ones playing last.




Reader Comments 16 Total
soko (last year)
Pick-man, I have to differ with you on this one. Consider:

1. With the new round-robin format, our conference champ will have already played (and, presumably gotten credit for, defeating the "great competition" they would otherwise face in the championship game under the old format).

2. The elimination of the championship also eliminates the fact that our MNC-bound team will get upset and deprived of a shot at the MNC, which, according to Klein, happened three or four times under the championship game format.

3. The BCS doesn't reward tough scheduling; it rewards pre-season rankings (which highly impact initial BCS rankings). Switch OU's and aTm's pre-season rankings last year and what are you left with at the end of the season? I would proffer that aTm would be ranked higher than OU (even after OU scored 7 points on oSu's failed punt-block attempt in a Bedlam game that OU won by 6 points), and aTm plays the championship game.

4. Most of our Big 8 and Big XII MNCs have been won by undefeated teams. I don't believe OU's MNC the year it lost to Kansas came over any undefeated teams. Isn't the clearest path to the title to go undefeated in a tough conference while sitting back to see if an SEC, PAC12 or BigTen team can beat a really good team twice, like OU has had to do on a number of occasions?

5. The new format basically, with the high pre-season rankings that OU and Texas typically get, sets up both those teams, plus oSu, aTm, Missouri and any other conference team that goes undefeated through the conference to play for the MNC, just like the old Big 8 days, doesn't it?

6. If OU, oSu and aTm all tie this year, it would mean that they would all have one loss and presumably out of the MNC picture. The tie-breaker to determine the Fiesta representative (which, from your past blogs, I assume you care nothing about in a year where our champ is not pursuing the MNC) wouldn't be determined by non-conference scheduling; it would be determined by final BCS ranking, which, as discussed, is way more affected by initial BCS rankings than scheduling.

7. If MNC game shots is what we value, the current format is a huge advantage for our undefeated conference champ. It certainly doesn't hurt OU or Texas, as Stoops has argued for years, and it is the only legitimate shot our other schools have at winning the MNC(eg, an undefeated oSu team that is good enough to beat everybody once but not quite good enough to beat everybody twice will get their MNC shot).
Granpa (last year)
This might make sense but can't tell because don't know what MNC means.
                    
Bart78 (last year)
Mythical National Championship - mythical because it is not recognized as an NCAA championship in the same way that basketball is.
LaffALot (last year)
In the last 5 years, when the BCS went to 4 bowl games & one title game (6 automatic bids & 4 open selections)

Each year, @ least one “open” invited selection
went to a team/conference w/ no championship game
Interestingly in the last 5 years, the Big 10 received the x-tra invite & last year a Pac 10 team was also invited

2006--Big 10 (Michigan)
2007--Big 10(Illinois)
2008--Big 10 (Ohio St)
2009--Big 10 (iowa)
2010--Big 10 (Ohio St) & Pac 10 (Stanford)

In the Nat’l championship game, 3 out of those 5 years a team that participated in that event
did not have to play a conference championship game

Hasn't the 'Snicker always "slammed" the Big 10 OOC scheduling? Well, no other conference has done better the last 5 years in putting 2 teams in a BCS Bowl game than the Big 10 & w/out a conference championship game.
love 918 (last year)
"Well, no other conference has done better the last 5 years in putting 2 teams in a BCS Bowl game than the Big 10"

Do you watch college football? The SEC is 8-2 in BCS games during the last 5 years including 5 (FIVE) national champions.

And Ohio St will eventually evacuate all their BCS appearances...
LaffALot (last year)
You are right that SEC has equaled the Big 10 in # of BCS postseason bowl appearances. I was just letting others know that NOT having a conference championship game doesn’t deter from a conference receiving a 2nd BCS Bowl bid.
In fact, in many ways, it probably helps to not to have the conference championship game & knock out a potential BCS bowl partner/team in that game.

Ohio St having to "give up" its $$$$ for their past BCS appearance doesn't take away the fact that they played in that game. USC & Auburn (might eventually have to forfeit its BCS nat'l championship) doesn't take away the fact that they played the game & millions saw it & the history books will just put an Astrix by that game/score. Big whoopie! It counted then & for alot of fans, including OU fans, they know who won the game.
tulsandn (last year)
Big 12 has 10 teams & Big 10 has 12 teams, PAC 10 has 11 teams.... All makes sense to me..... Higher education at it's finest....

Are all the schools in the SEC in the southeast ???? Yes they are, if the rest of the conference leaderships would count & reflect reality instead of fantasy THEN their conferences just might win a National Championship in football....
The Picker (last year)
It's a fact that the rest of the nation is playing for one title game position, that the SEC champion is the host team in the BCS finale.
jhpoke (last year)
The BCS will not last forever. There will be a playoff system eventually. Having a 12 team league won't amount to anything important at all.
Golden Hurricane (last year)
I think I speak for the masses when I say; What the hell is MNC??
Golden Hurricane (last year)
Mythical National Championship??
MexiMike (last year)
Yes, MNC stands for Mythical National Championship.

And I don't think that the best non-conference schedule will necessarily determine the conference champ in a three way tie.

I'd say it depends more on when the one loss for each team took place. If OSU loses to A&M early in the season but then runs through the rest of their schedule, I think it is very possible that they leapfrog both A&M and OU after the hypothetical Bedlam win.

I think a huge late loss/win does more to determine a conference champ than the non-conference schedule.
soko (last year)
MexMike is correct on all counts.

MNC is Mythical National Champion.

And the tie-breaker is way less dependant upon OOC scheduling than it is upon pre-season rankings and when your loss occurs. Recent evidence is OU passing Texas after beating Tech and oSu in a season when their early loss was to the Horns.
soko (last year)
I'm not sure what Picker's response has to do with the premise of his blog or the responses thereto, but, hey, I'll play.

Do you suppose Auburn, whose undefeated team watched SC and a one-loss OU team play for the marbles would agree that the SEC champ has a standing invite to the MNC?
The Picker (last year)
Without a Big 12 title game, and with the SEC having iced one slot, it's an uphill battle to the throne.
soko (last year)
Picker, can you name a single Big XII championship game that improved one of our teams' chances of qualifying for the MNC?

Texas was already ranked high enough to qualify for the MNC game, despite its narrow, disputed win over N in the year it lost to 'Bama. In the year it won the MNC, it was already in the MNC game before the conference championship.

I won't comment on the three or four MNC games our conference was deprived of because our highly ranked and MNC game-qualified team was upset (John has already outlined that for us).

OU was already qualified for all the MNC games it played before the conference championship.

Please provide us with a single season to support your theory that the conference championship game has ever, ever, benefitted one of our teams by helping them get to a MNC that they weren't already qualified for, or simply acknowledge that you are an excellent writer and student of the college football game that is correct almost every single time, but that this blog was a rare example of you just messing up, that you've rethought it, and you now recognize that the new format is the best new change to improve our conference getting more MNC shots since the Big 8 days, during which our undefeated champs regularly played for the marbles.
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Out Pick The Picker

The Picker began entertaining – and infuriating – sports fans in 1993. Each week during football season, he writes about his picks of college and NFL games in his Thursday Sports column. He's never afraid of sharing his opinions about the game and the personalities who play it. Readers have a chance to go against him each season in the Outpick the Picker contest. He welcomes the competition.

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