Report: Big 12 in favor of ending conference co-champions

Big 12 Commissioner says the schools' athletic directors want outright conference champions. This would put an end to the conference having co-champions.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Thursday that member school athletic directors want to add a head-to-head tiebreaker that would allow the conference to declare a single football champion each year, according to Kansas City Star reporter Kellis Robinett.

The conference currently allows co-champions, a policy that came under scrutiny after both Baylor and TCU were left out of the College Football Playoff last season. Both teams finished with one loss, with Baylor winning the teams' head-to-head matchup. But the league refused to declare one a champion, presenting both with trophies.

From the Baylor ceremony: 

(Coach Art) Briles accepted the trophy, yelled that his Bears were the league’s “one true champion,” and then proceeded to continue screaming at Bowlsby in a corner of the stage while others blabbed into the microphone.

The teams were the first two left out of the College Football Playoff. Eventual national champion Ohio State jumped into the top four after a blowout win in the Big Ten title game. 

Under the rules being discussed, the head-to-head winner would be used as the tie-breaker in determining the conference champion, meaning that Baylor would have been declared the Big 12 winner. 

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Robinett notes that the outright champion policy would only be enacted for football only.

- Erick Fernandez