JUST ONE OF THE GUYS
Big 12 has joined its peers with a conference championship game
The Big 12 Championship Game returns Saturday after a seven-year absence. Can you believe it’s been so long since OU beat Nebraska 23-20 in that 2010 title game? Bob Stoops vs. Bo Pelini. Brent Musburger called the game for ABC. All have switched jobs. Stoops is in retirement. Pelini’s in Youngstown. Musburger’s in Las Vegas, playing the betting game.
Heck, Nebraska’s not even in the conference anymore.
A lot has changed since then. Including TCU, which will play the Sooners on Saturday in Arlington for the Bob Stoops Trophy (just a suggestion).
The Horned Frogs were in the
Mountain West Conference back in 2010. Now TCU stands between the Sooners and the College Football Playoff.
Which will cause much consternation this week in Oklahoma’s 77 counties. Why does this game have to be played, Sooner loyalists will ask?
Why did the Big 12 have to reinstate a title game that as often as not could cost the conference as much as enhance it?
Good question. But there’s a good answer.
The return of the championship game signals the Big 12’s desire to stand shoulder to shoulder with college football’s other powerbroker leagues. No longer
is the Big 12 content to be the quirky league known for being different. No divisions. No title games. No stability. No plan.
You can survive as quirky. You can’t thrive as quirky.
The Big 12 still hasn’t expanded and likely won’t anytime soon. Marriages of convenience never are a good idea. But the championship game makes the Big 12 mainstream. Like the SEC. Like the Pac-12. Like the ACC. Like the Big Ten.
Those are the Big 12’s peers, and it’s high time the Big 12 acted like it.
Sure, the championship game puts the Sooners at risk. OU will be No. 1, 2 or 3 when the playoff committee announces its rankings Tuesday night, and if the Sooner regular season was complete, the
playoff would be assured. But the same can be said of Clemson and Auburn and Wisconsin.
All are exposed come Saturday. All must produce, or special seasons will end with disappointment. And all have assignments just as tough or tougher than TCU. ClemsonMiami. Auburn-Georgia. Wisconsin-Ohio State. And such exposures have been going on during these six seasons without a Big 12 title game. While the Big 12 stayed on the sidelines, the other leagues consistently put their best teams to an extra test. Oh how the mighty had fallen.
The SEC pioneered championship games, adding its showcase in 1992. The Big 12 jumped aboard in 1996. The ACC followed suit in 2005.
Think about that. For nine full seasons, the Big 12 and SEC stood alone with championship games.
And those were glory years for the Big 12. National titles for Nebraska in 1997, OU in 2000 and Texas in 2005. National-championship game appearances by Nebraska in 2001 and OU in 2003 and 2004.
I know it seems like forever that the SEC has been the behemoth lording over the rest of college football. But that’s only happened in the last decade.
In the first 10 years of the Big 12’s existence, 1996-2005, the Big 12’s reputation was as strong as the SEC’s.
Then when realignment stripped the Big 12 of stability and status — Nebraska, Colorado,
A&M and Missouri fled to other leagues — the Big Ten and Pac-12 added title games just as the Big 12 dropped out of the title game business. Suddenly, the conference that once was the peer of the SEC had morphed into the clear No. 5 out of five.
Sure, the title game occasionally cost the Big 12. Texas upset Nebraska 37-27 in 1996, knocking the Huskers out of a likely Sugar Bowl national title game. Texas A&M beat Kansas State 36-33 in overtime in 1998, knocking the Wildcats out of the Fiesta Bowl national title game. OU beat Missouri 38-17 in 2007, knocking the Tigers out of the Sugar Bowl national title game.
But championship games have cost other leagues, too. And not
having a title game has cost the Big 12, like in 2014, when Baylor and TCU tied for the Big 12 title and both were contenders for the playoff. If they had squared off in Arlington, the winner likely would have been selected.
You can’t hide. You shouldn’t want to hide. Embrace the challenge. Enjoy the stage. Don’t look on the Big 12 Championship Game as an unnecessary evil, but as a chance to restore the luster to a conference that once stood tall.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.