Commissioner Bob Bowlsby addresses attendees to Big 12 Conference Football Media Days Monday, July 20, 2015, in …
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Bowlsby offered no specifics, but said a majority of Big 12 chief executives – the final deciders on expansion – are happy with 10 members.
And he’s right. While I’m sure there’s a columnist now firing up his fingers writing about how the Big 12 has “gone soft”, teams are likely better off having less contact during practice than more, if for nothing else than health and depth reasons alone. “I think it’s the majority of our CEOs right now that believe likewise”. They’re doing a lot of good things in trying to monitor players and limit the amount of contact they get, especially to the head. Currently, the NCAA allows only three live contact days a week. “We’ll spend a little time at each meeting discussing it”.
The 2014 season, the first to feature the College Football Playoff, ended in a way that was “difficult to accept”, Bowlsby said. “What we determined was our guys weren’t using them anyway”, said Bowlsby.
“We have to recruit better”. “We have to win the big games when we have a chance to win the big games”.
“I think it’s because we are different”.
Bowlsby said that he does expect the NCAA to deregulate current rules and allow the 10-team league to host a championship game if it chooses to in the future, though it will not hold a title game this year. “I could capably argue either side of it from a mandatory standpoint because I think coaches need to have prerogative in terms of how they get their team ready”.
Big 12 athletic directors have adopted a rule to limit teams to only two days per week of full contact, including games.
And here’s another point: if football has a safety problem, and most coaches won’t have to change their ways to follow this new rule, then it’s easy to wonder what affect this can have.
The Big 12 also announced that it would be restricting live contact opportunities to just two times a week, including game-day.
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While it doesn’t seem that Big 12 expansion is imminent, it was still a topic of discussion at the Big 12’s Media Days.
