Bob Bowlsby says he's not 'sensing' a conference title game for the Big 12

Oh, what a difference a couple months make.

In March, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said he thought his membership would be in favor of a conference title game and reiterated last week that his league had to do something about being left out of the inaugural College Football Playoff. However, after meeting with the league’s athletic directors on Tuesday, Bowlsby seemed to back away from that declaration.

“I’m not sensing that’s where we’re headed,” Bowlsby said of a possible conference title game.

Bowlsby said his conference would continue to push for deregulation of the NCAA’s rule that requires 12 teams for a conference championship game, but Bowlsby said people “shouldn’t draw any conclusions from that.”

The biggest hangup by the Big 12 membership about trying to force a conference title game to suit the College Football Playoff was wondering if it was actually necessary. The conference did have two teams in play for the College Football Playoff and was the only Power Five conference to be left out, but that could have been happenstance. The Big 12 membership felt like it had no way of knowing whether the lack of a conference title game would hurt the conference year after year or if it was an anomaly.

“One year doesn’t make a trend,” Bowlsby said. “Let’s see how this goes forward.”

Regardless, the Big 12 can’t even start to think about a conference title game until the NCAA votes to deregulate its championship game rules, which has become a strong push from both the Big 12 and the ACC.

And Bowlsby reiterated Tuesday that his conference was not in favor of expansion at this time. And can you blame the league? Its revenue increased 89 percent from the final year of the BCS to the first year of the College Football Playoff. That works out to roughly $3 million more than teams made in 2013 and no one is eager to share those profits with two other teams.

Sure, critics could say the Big 12 is at a disadvantage because it doesn’t play 13 games like a champion from one of the other Power Five conferences, but that 13^th game also could knock a potential playoff contender out of contention.

The arguments for and against a title game are numerous and exhaustive.

Overall, the Big 12 is playing up the fact that it plays nine conference games and every team plays every other team in the conference. Big 12 ADs and coaches believe that should count for something. However, the conference also needs to be mindful about soft nonconference schedules. Baylor’s weak nonconference slate didn’t help the Big 12’s cause last season and if it wants to continue without a conference title game, it might need to mandate some tougher scheduling restrictions — like playing at least one Power Five opponent — for nonconference play.

There are a lot of things to consider, but the Big 12 isn’t panicking and it’s certainly not caving to the pressure of adding a title game just to satisfy what may or may not have been the reason it was left out of the playoff.

The Big 12 needs more data and it appears willing — at least this month — to take the risk and see what happens during the 2015 season. Only time will tell whether that's hubris or plain old stupidity.

-----

Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook