Big 12 Championship Game

Big 12 Championship Game
Sport Football
Conference Big 12 Conference
Current stadium AT&T Stadium
Current location Arlington, Texas
Played 1996–2010; 2017–present
Last contest 2017
Current champion Oklahoma Sooners
Most championships Oklahoma Sooners (8)
TV partner(s) FOX [1]
Official website Big12Sports.com Football
Sponsors
Dr. Pepper
Host stadiums
Host locations

The Big 12 Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big 12 Conference. The game was played each year since the conference's formation in 1996 until 2010 and returned during the 2017 season. From 1996 to 2010 the championship game pitted the Big 12 North Division champion against the South Division champion in a game held after the regular season was completed. From 2017 onward, the game features the two teams with the best conference records.

The Big 12 South led the series 11–4 and outscored the Big 12 North 463–324 in the first 15 years the game was held. In the first eight Big 12 championship games, from 1996 to 2003, the divisions split four games each, with the north champion winning in every odd-numbered year and the south champion winning in every even-numbered year. However, the North division champion did not win after #13 Kansas State's 35–7 upset victory over #1 Oklahoma in 2003.

The game will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas until at least 2021.[2]

History

The first championship game was played after the 1996 regular season, the first year of play for the Big 12 (which was created from the merger of the Big Eight Conference and four teams from the Southwest Conference). Like the SEC Championship Game (which has been played since 1992), the game matched the winners of the conference's two six-team divisions. The championship game was held at several sites within the Big 12 states, with Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, hosting more often than any other venue.

The 2008 Big 12 Championship Game was notable for the controversy over choosing the South Division representative. The Oklahoma Sooners, Texas Longhorns, and Texas Tech Red Raiders all finished with identical records and had each recorded a win and loss amongst one another. The Sooners earned a berth to the title game because they had the highest Bowl Championship Series ranking of the three at the time of selection. Oklahoma defeated the Missouri Tigers and earned a berth in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game.

From 2009 through 2013, the game was scheduled to be played at Cowboys Stadium, now known as AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.[3] During June 2010, however, Nebraska and Colorado announced that they would leave the Big 12 for other conferences (the Big Ten Conference and the Pac-12 Conference, respectively) in 2011. Because NCAA rules at the time required that a conference have 12 members in order to stage a football championship game that was exempt from NCAA limits on regular-season games, the conference dropped the championship game following the 2010 season. During this time, Oklahoma and Texas had expressed that a conference title game hurt the chances of the conference to have a representative in the BCS National Championship Game, and now the College Football Playoff, which started in 2014.[4]

In December 2014 after completing the first season with the College Football Playoff, Baylor and TCU both finished the season with an 8–1 conference record and were declared co-champions by the conference despite Baylor's head-to-head win over TCU. When the selection committee met to set the teams for the first playoff, both Baylor and TCU were overlooked in favor of teams that competed in and won their conference's championship game, leaving the Big 12 out of the playoffs.[5] This led to criticism of how the Big 12 determined its champion.

In April 2015, legislation was developed by the ACC and the Big 12 to deregulate conference championship games. It was announced by NCAA officials as being expected to pass in time for the start of the 2016 season.[6] The legislation passed on January 14, 2016 allowing a conference with fewer than twelve teams to stage a championship game between the top two teams, so long as they play a round-robin schedule. In late 2016, the Big 12 decided to bring back the championship game in 2017.

Results

Year North Division South Division Site Attendance MVP
1996 3 Nebraska Cornhuskers27 Texas Longhorns37 Trans World Dome • St. Louis 63,109 RB DeAngelo Evans, Nebraska
1997 2 Nebraska Cornhuskers54 14 Texas A&M Aggies15 Alamodome • San Antonio 64,824 RB Ahman Green, Nebraska
1998 2 Kansas State Wildcats33 10 Texas A&M Aggies36 Trans World Dome • St. Louis 60,798 QB Branndon Stewart, Texas A&M
1999 3 Nebraska Cornhuskers22 12 Texas Longhorns6 Alamodome • San Antonio 65,063
2000 8 Kansas State Wildcats24 1 Oklahoma Sooners27 Arrowhead Stadium • Kansas City, Missouri 79,655 QB Josh Heupel, Oklahoma
2001 9 Colorado Buffaloes39 3 Texas Longhorns37 Texas Stadium • Irving, Texas 65,675
2002 12 Colorado Buffaloes7 8 Oklahoma Sooners29 Reliant Stadium • Houston 63,332 RB Quentin Griffin, Oklahoma
2003 13 Kansas State Wildcats35 1 Oklahoma Sooners7 Arrowhead Stadium • Kansas City, Missouri 75,491 QB Ell Roberson, Kansas State
2004 Colorado Buffaloes3 2 Oklahoma Sooners42 62,310
2005 Colorado Buffaloes3 2 Texas Longhorns70 Reliant Stadium • Houston 71,107 QB Vince Young, Texas
2006 19 Nebraska Cornhuskers7 8 Oklahoma Sooners21 Arrowhead Stadium • Kansas City, Missouri 80,031 WR Malcolm Kelly, Oklahoma
2007 1 Missouri Tigers17 9 Oklahoma Sooners38 Alamodome • San Antonio 62,585 QB Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
2008 19 Missouri Tigers21 4 Oklahoma Sooners62 Arrowhead Stadium • Kansas City, Missouri 71,004 QB Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
2009 21 Nebraska Cornhuskers12 3 Texas Longhorns13 Cowboys Stadium • Arlington, Texas 76,211 DT Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska
2010 13 Nebraska Cornhuskers20 10 Oklahoma Sooners23 78,802 QB Landry Jones, Oklahoma
Year #1 Seed #2 Seed Site Attendance MVP
2017 2 Oklahoma Sooners 41 10 TCU Horned Frogs 17 AT&T Stadium • Arlington, Texas 64,104 QB Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
2018

Rankings are from the AP Poll released prior to the game

Results by team

Current members

Appearances School Wins Losses PCT. Year(s) Won
9 Oklahoma 8 1 .889 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017
5 Texas 3 2 .600 1996, 2005, 2009
3 Kansas State 1 2 .333 2003
1 TCU 0 1 .000

Former members

Appearances School Wins Losses PCT. Year(s) Won
6 Nebraska 2 4 .333 1997, 1999
4 Colorado 1 3 .250 2001
2 Texas A&M 1 1 .500 1998
2 Missouri 0 2 .000

See also

List of NCAA Division I FBS conference championship games

References

  1. ↑ "Big 12 Announces New Media Rights Deal With ESPN & FOX Sports Media Group". big12sports.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "Big 12 Announces 2018 Conference Football Schedule". Big12sports.com: The Big 12 Conference Official Athletic Site. October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Big 12 Conference Concludes Spring Meetings; Future Championship Sites Approved For Football, Basketball". Big12sports.com: The Big 12 Conference Official Athletic Site. May 24, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  4. ↑ Carlton, Chuck; Sabin, Rainer (June 16, 2010). "UT coach Mack Brown not worried about lack of Big 12 title game". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on 16 July 2010. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
  5. ↑ Rovell, Darren & Purdum, David (December 12, 2014). "Ohio State bumps TCU from CFP". ESPN. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Report: Conference title game deregulation expected by 2016". ESPN. April 8, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
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