Big XII to Vote on Adding Another Conference Game

[MrMustang1965]

By Randy Riggs
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, May 21, 2006

With a 12-game regular season now permanently in place in college football, the hypothetical question for Big 12 coaches is whether they would want the extra game to be against, say, Southeastern Louisiana or the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

To Texas Tech's Mike Leach, it's a no-brainer. Bring on the Lions, which is precisely what his Red Raiders will do on Sept. 23.

"Anybody that plays in the Big 12 has one of the toughest schedules in the country, anyway," Leach said. "To play nine (conference) games makes a tough schedule even tougher."

That's one reason why a proposal to add a ninth conference game in the Big 12, beginning in 2008 after the league's current four-year scheduling cycle ends, faces an uncertain fate. The league's athletic directors will vote on the issue at the annual conference meetings, which start Monday in Colorado Springs, Colo.

A 7-5 majority vote is needed to advance the proposa, which ultimately would have to be approved by the presidents of the league schools. Finding more than six votes for the measure may prove difficult for proponents of a ninth conference game.

"My reading is that I'm not sure where that will go," Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg said. "There seems to be no real consensus that has emerged that I've been able to see."

If the proposal passed, the Big 12 would become the second Bowl Championship Series conference with a nine-game league slate. The Pacific-10, which unlike the Big 12 does not have a conference championship game, begins a round-robin league schedule this season.

Ninth-game proponents in the Big 12, including Texas men's athletic director DeLoss Dodds, say the additional game would ease several scheduling issues triggered in part by the advent of the 12th regular-season game. Finding an additional opponent, Dodds said, has been unexpectedly difficult and costly.

"When we put the 12th game in, I think people thought we could just run out and fill that void," he said. "But it's been hard."

Most upper-echelon schools from power conferences are reluctant to schedule similar teams from similar leagues because of the inherent strength of their own league. Consequently, it's become a buyers market for the lower-level NCAA Division I-A football teams.

"The bottom of I-A has really jacked up the price," Dodds said. "And if you jump into the top part of I-AA, then you get penalized some on strength of schedule, and certainly your fans don't like it."

The Longhorns added I-AA Sam Houston State as their 12th game this season. It will be a $275,000 payday for the Bearkats.

Butch Worley, UT's senior associate athletic director responsible for football scheduling, said the cost of attracting a I-A nonconference home opponent has risen from about $300,000 several years ago to almost $800,000 now for schools with huge stadiums that are regularly filled.

"The marketplace has changed dramatically," Worley said.

Leach remains unswayed. "Competitiveness needs to be the biggest consideration," he said. "Money does not."

Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw opposes the proposed change, noting that the ninth game necessitates playing four home games and five road games every other year.

"The imbalance is significant when you're competing for a (league) championship," McCaw said. "That type of inequity can play a significant role in determining who the champion is."

McCaw, former athletic director at the University of Massachusetts, said the Atlantic 10 Conference went from eight to nine conference games from 2001-03. "After two years, we couldn't wait to get rid of it," he said.

Weiberg said the division of those for and against the measure doesn't necessarily fall along a line between the perceived "have" and "have not" programs.

"It seems to cut across budget lines," Weiberg said. "It really boils down to how much ability there is for programs to get buy-in games."

While Dodds acknowledged a downside to the extra conference game is an increased possibility of replaying a team in the conference title game, he believes the positives outweigh the negatives.

"I think it's better for the fans," he said. "It gives you one more home game every other year that's a really good home game. Having more conference games gives you a better feel for who's the best team in the conference.

"Fans care about conference games," Dodds added. "If you add another one, I think the burn would be there to get to the game and buy a ticket."

Weiberg, who doesn't vote on the issue, said there's good and bad associated with a ninth league game.

"I think there's good symmetry in what we do now," he said. "If it is not harming our aspirations to place teams in major bowl games or to pursue the national championship, why change it?"

Big 12 teams have played in five of the past six Bowl Championship Series title games, winning two.

"So it's a little hard to quibble with the nature of the schedule the way it is currently built," Weiberg said. "But there is an upside to (a ninth game) from a television perspective, I think.

"If there is difficulty getting quality intersectional games, which some are saying there is, then the extra conference game is probably better from the standpoint of giving fans a game of interest that viewers would like to see," he added. "So I can understand why it's a little hard for us to find consensus on this."