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Conference Panic Time! or...No Don't

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The playoff committee has spoken and we got left out. The Big 12 is the only "Major" conference without a title game because it only has ten schools. TCU and Baylor are tiny and, while exciting, draw only a collective meh..nationwide. Getting left out of the playoffs cost the conference some money. Art Briles is angry and probably always demands to be the banker in Monopoly so he can palm a few hundreds if need be. These are all things you already know though, because you're smart.

Let's take a few minutes and talk about what has to happen next if one of our ten schools is to make it into the CFB Playoff..................................................

Nothing. The answer's nothing. Bob Bowlsby, conference bylaws and Big 12 schools shouldn't fix anything...yet.

Over the last twenty four hours I've seen several hot takes demanding that the Big 12 MUST ACT TO SAVE THE CONFERENCE! It's not true, mainly because a strategy should never be evaluated solely on it's outcome. No strategy or alignment will guarantee a playoff spot in the current format at the start of the season. If there was a perfect one, we'd all be using it.

We're a FSU loss and Wisconsin showing up away from two Big 12 teams in the title game. Despite all the wailing about the need to expand, the need to schedule better, and the need to change the bylaws the conference was a few bounces from having two teams in.

Expansion is a non starter with me, although Jon Morse makes a case worth reading. He says it's all about money and he may be right, but I feel part of the issue is actual perception. How many years will it take for UCF or USF to be seen as a power conference school? Like, a real one? I have a problem with adding what could amount to a non conference patsy, pushing the BIG12's national perception closer and closer to Texas, OU and CUSA. Besides, I'm not forking over one of OkState's TV dollars so Baylor or other recruiting rivals can play in a title game. And even then you're assuming that the favorite would win. Bob Bowlsby is right and just when he says title games can hurt. That the top teams all won their title games this year changes nothing. Some years they'll lose.

Tennessee, UCLA, Florida State, Auburn, Minnesota.....these are schools Big 12 teams played in non conference this year. I find it hard to believe the conference has a scheduling problem just because some of our members have scheduling problems. Why does Kansas or Tech owe us to schedule a non conference guaranteed loss? It's a business decision. Conference scheduling, as a whole is more than fine. Also FYI, we have PITT and Boise on future schedules.

Finally about the Bylaws, marketing failure aside they need to stay the same. I admit to being crazy but if every game counts, then every game counts, not "hey we won head to head so "No...don't look over there in that closet, NOTHING TO SEE HERE" Want to win the conference outright? Toughen up and win them all. Everybody gets a trophy because some games don't count is silly for everyone involved.

I trust Bob Bowlsby and the conference athletic directors will make the right decisions in their meetings this off-season. We need to do nothing and see how it plays out over the next five years.

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