Big 12 picks Cowboys stadium for football championships

IRVING, Texas (AP) The Big 12 will hold its newly reinstated football championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The

IRVING, Texas (AP) The Big 12 will hold its newly reinstated football championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

The conference announced the site of its five title games from 2017-21 on Friday. AT&T Stadium was the leading candidate, considering half the conference's 10 schools are within a 4 1/2-hour drive of Arlington.

San Antonio and Kansas City, Missouri, were also considered.

AT&T Stadium was the site of the first College Football Playoff championship game in 2015 and annually hosts the Cotton Bowl, one of six games through which the national semifinals rotate.

The Big 12 stopped playing a football championship game after the league shrunk to 10 members in 2011, but members recently decided to restore it.