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Is conference football title game obsolete?
BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Apr 14, 2006 - 12:10:20 am CDT
Big 12 Conference athletic directors and coaches frequently discuss the pros and cons of playing a conference championship football game. The topic, says Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, is usually brought up, in some form, each year.
Could the NCAA’s addition of a 12th regular-season game give a spark to those talks?
Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said the expanded schedule could lead to discussions about the future of the league’s title game.
“I think that’s already been talked about a little bit, but not as much in depth,” Pederson said. “Now you’re playing more games. You’re trying to sandwich more into a shorter period of time. I think that’s going to cause some discussion of that.”
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Weiberg said no active review of the championship game is planned for the Big 12’s spring meetings, May 22-25 in Colorado Springs, Colo., although he expects the topic, again, to be broached. He said the last in-depth look at the game was four years ago.
More prominent on the agenda, Weiberg said, will be discussion of playing a nine-game conference schedule. That’s in response to the NCAA’s new 12-game schedule, which goes into effect this season.
Playing nine league games, Weiberg said, would help prevent problems athletic directors are already facing in filling a four-game nonconference schedule.
While that doesn’t necessarily spell the demise of the conference championship game, some coaches and athletic directors wouldn’t mind seeing that result.
When asked his views on the future of the championship game, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops responded: “To me, it should look pretty shaky to everyone.”
The Big 12 has played a title game every year since the league’s inception in 1996. The advantages and disadvantages have been well-documented. Proponents like the game because it’s more exposure and money for the league. Opponents say it can do more harm than good, and point to 1998, when Kansas State lost the Big 12 game and, in turn, a chance to play for the national championship.
Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, who’s against playing a league championship game, said he’d rather see an 11-game regular season, followed by a playoff.
“But we’re not in a perfect world,” Dodds said.
Dodds said the championship game generates some $800,000 per Big 12 school, a big reason he doesn’t believe the game will disappear.
“If you took a vote now, it’d be 9-3 or 8-4 (in favor of keeping the game),” said Dodds, noting Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, and possibly Texas A&M, would probably vote against the game. “We just can’t change it. We just don’t have the votes.”
Texas won the first Big 12 title game, upsetting Nebraska in 1996. The Longhorns were upset by Colorado in 2001, denying them a possible Rose Bowl berth, and last season played what amounted to a meaningless game, throttling Colorado 70-3 in the Big 12 championship en route to winning the Rose Bowl and the national championship.
“Colorado didn’t want to play it. They were in a tailspin,” Dodds said. “We didn’t want to play it. We didn’t need the win to go to the national championship.”
Stoops suggested playing a nine-game conference schedule and scrapping the North-South divisions. “It blends the conference better,” he said.
Nebraska coach Bill Callahan, though, said he’s in favor of playing the conference championship game.
“I like the divisional aspect, both teams fighting to capture their own division, get a playoff atmosphere, another game,” Callahan said. “You’re playing for everything. Possibly playing against an opponent you haven’t played during the regular season.
“It’s intriguing. I think the way the Big 12 is structured, the way they have set the format of the playoff, I’m in favor of it.”
First-year Kansas State coach Ron Prince agreed, saying the game gives the Big 12 an opportunity to put the conference on a national stage.
“I can’t put my finger on how it might affect the future … but I can say from a fan standpoint and coaches’ standpoint, that’s the game we want to get into,” Prince said. “If you’re playing in that game, you have a chance to play your way into a BCS game.”
Weiberg said the Big 12 championship game is guaranteed through 2007 because of the league’s television contract with ABC. That contract expires following the 2007 season, and Weiberg said negotiations will begin that winter.
As for a nine-game conference schedule, the earliest that could happen would be 2008; the league schedules are set through 2007. Weiberg said he’d like to schedule another four years in advance, and possibly eight years.
The future of the championship game, then, could depend partly on how the league decides to format future schedules.
Of the BCS conferences, the Southeastern Conference has the longest-running championship game, followed by the Big 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference added a league championship game last season.
As for the future of title games in other leagues?
“Those that don’t have it won’t get it,” Dodds said, “and those who have it can’t get rid of it.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 743-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com. Journal Star sports editor John Mabry and assistant sports editor Todd Henrichs contributed to this story.
BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Apr 14, 2006 - 12:10:20 am CDT
Big 12 Conference athletic directors and coaches frequently discuss the pros and cons of playing a conference championship football game. The topic, says Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, is usually brought up, in some form, each year.
Could the NCAA’s addition of a 12th regular-season game give a spark to those talks?
Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said the expanded schedule could lead to discussions about the future of the league’s title game.
“I think that’s already been talked about a little bit, but not as much in depth,” Pederson said. “Now you’re playing more games. You’re trying to sandwich more into a shorter period of time. I think that’s going to cause some discussion of that.”
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Weiberg said no active review of the championship game is planned for the Big 12’s spring meetings, May 22-25 in Colorado Springs, Colo., although he expects the topic, again, to be broached. He said the last in-depth look at the game was four years ago.
More prominent on the agenda, Weiberg said, will be discussion of playing a nine-game conference schedule. That’s in response to the NCAA’s new 12-game schedule, which goes into effect this season.
Playing nine league games, Weiberg said, would help prevent problems athletic directors are already facing in filling a four-game nonconference schedule.
While that doesn’t necessarily spell the demise of the conference championship game, some coaches and athletic directors wouldn’t mind seeing that result.
When asked his views on the future of the championship game, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops responded: “To me, it should look pretty shaky to everyone.”
The Big 12 has played a title game every year since the league’s inception in 1996. The advantages and disadvantages have been well-documented. Proponents like the game because it’s more exposure and money for the league. Opponents say it can do more harm than good, and point to 1998, when Kansas State lost the Big 12 game and, in turn, a chance to play for the national championship.
Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, who’s against playing a league championship game, said he’d rather see an 11-game regular season, followed by a playoff.
“But we’re not in a perfect world,” Dodds said.
Dodds said the championship game generates some $800,000 per Big 12 school, a big reason he doesn’t believe the game will disappear.
“If you took a vote now, it’d be 9-3 or 8-4 (in favor of keeping the game),” said Dodds, noting Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, and possibly Texas A&M, would probably vote against the game. “We just can’t change it. We just don’t have the votes.”
Texas won the first Big 12 title game, upsetting Nebraska in 1996. The Longhorns were upset by Colorado in 2001, denying them a possible Rose Bowl berth, and last season played what amounted to a meaningless game, throttling Colorado 70-3 in the Big 12 championship en route to winning the Rose Bowl and the national championship.
“Colorado didn’t want to play it. They were in a tailspin,” Dodds said. “We didn’t want to play it. We didn’t need the win to go to the national championship.”
Stoops suggested playing a nine-game conference schedule and scrapping the North-South divisions. “It blends the conference better,” he said.
Nebraska coach Bill Callahan, though, said he’s in favor of playing the conference championship game.
“I like the divisional aspect, both teams fighting to capture their own division, get a playoff atmosphere, another game,” Callahan said. “You’re playing for everything. Possibly playing against an opponent you haven’t played during the regular season.
“It’s intriguing. I think the way the Big 12 is structured, the way they have set the format of the playoff, I’m in favor of it.”
First-year Kansas State coach Ron Prince agreed, saying the game gives the Big 12 an opportunity to put the conference on a national stage.
“I can’t put my finger on how it might affect the future … but I can say from a fan standpoint and coaches’ standpoint, that’s the game we want to get into,” Prince said. “If you’re playing in that game, you have a chance to play your way into a BCS game.”
Weiberg said the Big 12 championship game is guaranteed through 2007 because of the league’s television contract with ABC. That contract expires following the 2007 season, and Weiberg said negotiations will begin that winter.
As for a nine-game conference schedule, the earliest that could happen would be 2008; the league schedules are set through 2007. Weiberg said he’d like to schedule another four years in advance, and possibly eight years.
The future of the championship game, then, could depend partly on how the league decides to format future schedules.
Of the BCS conferences, the Southeastern Conference has the longest-running championship game, followed by the Big 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference added a league championship game last season.
As for the future of title games in other leagues?
“Those that don’t have it won’t get it,” Dodds said, “and those who have it can’t get rid of it.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 743-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com. Journal Star sports editor John Mabry and assistant sports editor Todd Henrichs contributed to this story.
