I just want to say a few things about the Big 12 and then get off of this subject since I'm tired of it too.
I'll just say upfront, I don't think it is a good idea to have a CG if there are only 10 teams. I think it would do more harm than good since it's already a round robin conference where no team gets to avoid the other. As far as expansion, I think the only realistic/acceptable additions to the conference are Cincinnati and UCF but they aren't interested. And BYU wants every conference to play by their rules, and that's just not going to work. Can you imagine BYU dictating to the Big 10 or Pac-12 that your not going to be able to play your weekend basketball, baseball, softball etc. tournaments on Sunday, the day the fans have a day off and attend the most games, because this is our day off. The answer is no. I'm sure the Big 12 feels the same way.
There are no other acceptable schools to add to the Big 12. Teams like Rice, SMU, Memphis and their 20,000 seat stadiums are out of the question and shouldn't ever be considered for a Power 5 conference. You wouldn't ever see the SEC going after schools like this. The Big 12 shouldn't either. They already have too many mid-major schools as it is. So it's really no use in starting the continual threads of the Big 12 needs to add 2 more teams. That ship has sailed and the funeral was held after the Big 12 brass didn't attempt to lure FSU and Louisville several seasons ago. They made their bed on the day they made that decision, and there was no turning back from it once it was made.
The question that none of us know is if this first season of the Playoff was an anomaly for the Big 12 being left out or it's going to happen every year they are in contention. I still think there were a few odd circumstances that kept it from happening. All they needed was one different outcome from the top 4. It was a rarity that none of the top 4 were knocked off. How often does that happen? FSU had a a very close call win and Ohio State was an underdog. My prediction for this season is there won't be a controversy with the Big 12 because I don't think anybody in this conference will have less than 2 losses. We know what condition the two flagship teams Texas and OU are in these days. Baylor loses their QB and has a tougher road schedule ahead. And the TCU team that many are picking to make the national title game is facing a major rebuilding job on defense. I don't see them repeating what they did last year.
I more or less agree with all of the negative things that are said here about the Big 12. Believe me, I'm much more disgusted with them than anybody on this board. But the one thing that perturbs me more than anything is when the whole conference is lumped together. "If OU is bad then Baylor must be bad" sort of stuff that makes no sense. And you know who does this. Personally, judging an entire conference based on a few teams is a terrible way to approach the season or handicap games. OU was terrible at the end of the year, but I would have stacked TCU up against anybody in the country. The year before that OU was very good at the end of the season before beating Bama in the Sugar Bowl. So they shouldn't have been judged by how bad Texas was or TCU's 4-8 season.
Every team is different from season to season. That's what makes college football so special. All we're actually doing is handicapping the ups and downs of these teams and hoping we get it right. The way I look at football is this: There are the have's and the have not's. The top 10 recruiting teams are the bluebloods of college football. Everybody outside of the top 10 in recruiting are the have not's and are all in the same boat and fair game. This has been proven year after year with the national champions in football and basketball. The only things that really separates these "outsider" teams from each other is coaching, QB's and returning starters/chemistry. So to say your non-top 10 recruiting team from your conference is better than my non-top 10 recruiting team from my conference is open for interpretation because situations change drastically from year to year, and from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. None of these Power 5 conferences are beating each other in these bowls to the point we say they shouldn't play anymore. So putting down other conference's teams pretty much flies over my head and means nothing to me. If I stopped betting on tOSU last year because they lost at home to a 6-6 team with a terrible QB, I would have lost out on a lot of betting opportunities. Especially since tOSU ended up going 8-5 ATS, and we know the rest...I've really got only two words to say that can carry you a long way on this forum and at the betting windows...."Don't judge"
