Kansas State’s Bill Snyder Wants a Big 12 Championship Game

Bill Snyder wants his next Big 12 championship team at Kansas State to win it the right way, by playing head-to-head in a conference championship game.

“I’ve always been in favor of a Big 12 Championship game,” Snyder said in a recent interview. “There are a number of teams that can go right up until the last game or two of the regular season that are still competing for a divisional championship with an opportunity to play in the championship game. That doesn’t happen that way anymore.”

It doesn’t get anymore oxymoron than the  Big 12’s “one true champion” motto

“Baylor and TCU were the two best teams in the Big 12 last season,” said Snyder. “Had they played a 13th game…the winner would have been chosen for the playoff.”

Ohio State legitimized their College Football Playoff bid by winning the national championship, but few would disagree with Snyder’s take. As well as the Buckeyes played Alabama and Oregon, we cannot forget the selection night commotion that arose when TCU and Baylor were left out by the CFP Committee. Fact is Ohio State was long shot away from the CFP until their drudging of Wisconsin in the Big 10 championship game.

So how different would the CFP have been had Baylor and TCU played in a conference title game? And how bitter are we today if Kansas State was one of the teams left out because of no 13th game?

It doesn’t get anymore oxymoron than the  Big 12’s “one true champion” motto. And while the conference will need to return to 12 teams in order host a 13th game, commissioner Bob Bowlsby is apparently in no hurry. “I think we all believe that one year is not a long enough trial to draw any conclusions,” Bowlsby said after a May 5th meeting with league athletic directors. “We may find ourselves in better shape than some other conferences as a result of our model rather than in spite of our model.”

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Bill Snyder would undoubtedly like to see Kansas State in the College Football Playoff within his lifetime, something that remains unlikely as long as the Big 12 carries less than 12 teams. And while the conference continues to drag their feet on adding programs, Kansas State is pressured to schedule tougher out of conference games as a means to better rankings. Snyder has never been a fan of scheduling opponents years in advance due to the inability to see into the future of programs.

“I’ve never been in favor of scheduling too far in advance,” says Snyder. “You never know what your program’s going to be like.”

Kansas State football saw action in two Big 12 championship games (2000, 2003) under the previous conference format. Both games were played at Arrowhead Stadium, as were games  back in 2004, 2006, and 2008.  Its worth noting Bill Snyder prefers the Kansas City venue as a host to any future Big 12 championships.