Dienhart: Vote lets 10-team leagues hold football title game

The Big 12 got its wish, as the NCAA voted to deregulate rules surrounding league championship games. The league can hold a league title game as soon as next season under its current 10-team, one-division configuration.

Rules were in place that required conferences to have at least 12 teams and two divisions in order to have a league championship game. But the NCAA vote means that as long as the Big 12 continues to play a round-robin schedule, it can hold a title game.

For the record: The vote by the NCAA Division I Council passed 7-2. The Atlantic Coast Conference and the American Athletic Conference voted against it. The Pac-12 didn't vote but later said it supported the change.

The Big Ten had opposed the change but eventually accepted the new position.

"Instead of complete deregulation there was a consensus we should have some parameters … without the need to go expand conferences and go through some of the past experiences we've seen," Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips told the AP.

The thinking behind opposing this change: Deregulation of league title games may have unintended consequences. Basically,  the Big Ten felt that in order for the additional game to be exempted as a conference championship, the matchup must be reflective of the participating teams' success within the conference. Playing divisions would help do that. But so does accepting the new round-robin schedule requirement.

On the other side, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby felt his league was at a disadvantage without a league title game. Remember, the Big Ten's Michigan State passed Oklahoma for the No. 3 spot in the final rankings of the College Football Playoff on the strength of a win over unbeaten Iowa in the Big Ten title game this past season.

?It was really a function of what Michigan State did in their 13th game," College Football Playoff committee chair Jeff Long said back when the Spartans landed at No. 3."They beat last week's No. 4 team in the nation, and that was significant. No question that had an impact on the committee. I think that win over that highly ranked team, added to the rest of their body of work, caused Michigan State to be ranked ahead of Oklahoma."

It was thought that if the vote went the other way and the Big 12 was denied, it would expand from ten to 12 teams. Now, that won?t be case. Still, the league could add schools at some point. The current roster of Big 12 teams is: Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, TCU, Baylor, West Virginia and Iowa State.

The Big 12-which once did have 12 schools and once did play a league title game–still could someday add teams. Those most often mentioned: Houston, Central Florida, UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis, BYU, among others.

"We are constantly monitoring the landscape," Bowlsby said. "What it does is keep us from being forced to expand."

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