Big 12's Bowlsby: No Title Game Coming

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told CBS Sports on Tuesday that the conference will not pursue a championship game.

According to Dennis Dodd, Bowlsby, who recently was thought to have been in favor of a title game, has done an about-face. Dodd reports that Bowlsby's change in thinking can be directly linked to avoiding an overreaction to last season's debacle, where both TCU and Baylor were left out of the College Football Championship.

“I think we all believe that one year is not a long enough trial to draw any conclusions,” Bowlsby said. “We may find ourselves in better shape than some other conferences as a result of our model rather than in spite of our model.”

Only a week ago, Bowlsby claimed that after conversing with CPF selection chairman Jeff Long, a championship game was the wise course of action.

“What we heard is if we don't go to a championship game we're at a disadvantage,” Bowlsby told CBS last week of his conversation with long. “All things being equal, 13 games are better than 12 games. That's what we heard. So that gives us clear enough direction that we're coming in at least at a modest disadvantage. We need to do whatever we can to mitigate that.”

TCU and Baylor will enter the 2015 season as two of the six or seven favorites to contend for the playoff. The Bears travel to TCU on Nov. 27, one day after Thanksgiving.