At the start of Big 12 Media Days in Dallas on Monday, commissioner Bob Bowlsby announced a league-wide reduction of in-season live tackling opportunities in practice in an effort to reduce the number of injuries suffered by student-athletes.
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If the Big 12 is going to continue moving forward without a conference championship game, then the importance of winning more key regular season games is pivotal than ever.
DALLAS (AP) – Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby doesn’t believe his league is at any disadvantage with 10 teams, and says there isn’t any real push for expansion.
“I’ve always favored the way it was at one time”, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. I think some of it is also style, and some of our guys don’t even hit two days a week.
“We got left out. We have to play better”, Bowlsby said Monday in his annual address to open football media days. “But until the majority shifts, it’s purely academic conversation”. “One year does not make a trend”. Bowlsby still emphasized the value of the league being the only one that plays a full round-robin schedule.
“We have a pretty good template for doing it”, he said. “We don’t want to just participate in the playoff; we want to win championships”. The Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference, Big Ten Conference, and the PAC 12 Conference all have championship games to determine the conference champion.
“Yes, it concerns us because of the aspirations that I noted earlier”, he said. We think that gives us a full array of options. “If they can get by on 11 days, we can certainly get by on twice that”. “We think that, properly managed, those kinds of celebrations can be a lot of fun”.
Bowlsby said the Big 12 should be about more than just making the playoff, and should do better than its 2-5 bowl record last season.
Bowlsby said the conference has decided not to prohibit court and field storming by fans. Others could be persuaded to change their minds, Bowlsby said.
The Big 12 also scrapped the “One True Champion” motto and replaced it with – are you ready for this?
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After a year of speculation and a thousand stories about Big 12 expansion candidates, the jury is in.
