“The Big 12 Conference continues to take the lead in the area of player safety as the first conference to enact more restrictive contact polices than now permitted”, commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.
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Bowlsby noted that four or five league presidents might be able to be persuaded to consider expansion, but he doesn’t believe the league is “disadvantaged”.
“That rule will get deregulated, and I think we’ll have that (playoff game) conversation at some point between now and the 2016 season”, Bowlsby said. I favor two divisions, and I favor a championship game.
In an interview with the Post-Gazette last month, West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons said he is “always open to look at” the potential for conference expansion.
Plus, a new tiebreaker procedure has been put in place after Baylor and TCU were declared co-champions last season and both one-loss teams got left out of the playoffs. “You might remember that, when we had that format, we were one of only two teams that played a game in December, and that was one of only two conferences”, Snyder stated. “You really don’t have to have much of an imagination to see how that might’ve worked out”. If anything, Bowlsby said, it’ll keep teams more rested toward the end of the season.
“If we go another year and get left out and it appears to be systemic, then we need to be mindful of it”.
“I think that’s exactly where we’re at”. Plus, TCU coach Gary Patterson mentioned that the Horned Frogs only had one day of full-contact practice during the week and that sure didn’t seem to make his defense any less physical.
“We believe it’s the right step”, he told the media on Monday, “And we hope it will become the national rule”. But that doesn’t mean a disadvantage couldn’t develop or couldn’t be shown to exist. “Even if it doesn’t, we think that that’s the right way to conduct our practices”. He expects that to pass.
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That’s interesting, given that Bowlsby estimated that a postseason conference championship game would generate at least $20 million for the conference. “What we determined was our guys weren’t using them anyway”, said Bowlsby.
