The Real
Spill
Can TCU finally crack the Top 4?
How will Mississipi State losing affect poll?
Flordia State remains only unbeaten team
in thriller.
College Football race heating up.

B
ob Bowlsby and
the league’s ath-
letic directors
meet in New York.
The hangover of a bru-
tally embarrassing weekend
for the Big 12 should’ve
worn off by the time they
assemble. The worst-case
scenario we should’ve seen
coming came true. What are
the league’s leaders going to
do about it?
The national sympathy
for Baylor and TCU has an
expiration date. It’s probably
Monday. The college foot-
ball world will move on. The
boos emanating from the
Lone Star State won’t regis-
ter. Why? Because, despite it
all, we did get one hell of a
College Football Playoff.
Outside Big 12 coun-
try, they aren’t calling this
inaugural bracket a travesty
or tragedy. The public has
every right to be happy with
Alabama vs. Ohio State and
Oregon vs. Florida State.
The committee delivered a
compelling playoff.
Had Ohio State and
TCU been left out, Sunday
might’ve been consumed by
the rage of two conferences,
the Big 12 and Big Ten
aligning in anger to demand
a better way. Makes you
wonder if the committee re-
alizes how safe an outcome
it selected.
Meanwhile, Baylor AD
Ian McCaw’s intentions
are clear. He’s ready to be-
gin discussing an expanded
playoff model.
“I’m a big eight-team
playoff guy,” McCaw told
ESPN.com on Saturday
night, “and I think tonight
and this process may under-
score it’s not realistic to pick
four teams. It’s just not real-
istic.”
It’s his job to protect
Who’s In?
By: Max Olson

his program’s interests. But
chasing an eight-team play-
off is not going to get the job
done. Not right now.
Baylor and TCU can le-
gitimately claim they had as
good a shot at winning it all
as Ohio State. A Bama blow-
out of the Buckeyes would
reheat those talking points,
no question. But these Big
12 rivals have a problem:
Who exactly is begging and
pleading to add the next two
teams, Mississippi State
and Michigan State, to this
year’s mix?
An eight-team affair,
while great for TV and mon-
ey and morale, is the Big
12’s red herring for now.
If we go down that road,
does it end in sweeping
support and a majority vote
from the Power 5? What’s
going to compel that ma-
jority to even take the vote?
This season’s playoff won’t.
Pac-12 commissioner
Larry Scott said it best Fri-
day: “I don’t think there will
be a lot of tolerance for sour
grapes.” There won’t be any
for the Big 12, that much is
certain.
This was a botched plan
from the start, a failure set in
motion well before the “One
True Champion” slogan was
even concocted.
The Big 12 anticipated
having the upper hand with
its nine-game conference
slate and title game-free
playoff path. The Big 12 did
not anticipate having two
11-win teams, nor the sig-
nificant benefit of that 13th
game. The league wasn’t
prepared or proactive during
this season of uncertainty.
Bowlsby isn’t the only one
culpable for the mess. So are
the ADs he’ll face Monday.
They all better point the
thumb. The Big 12 came up
broke. That doesn’t mean
the system is broken.
The truth is, the Big 12
can focus only on fixing the
Big 12. McCaw must con-
front the front end of Bay-
lor’s schedule and change
his tune on nonconference
scheduling. TCU AD Chris
Del Conte ought to fight for
fixing the back end. Having
to face last-place Iowa State
on championship week dam-
aged the Frogs' plans. To-
gether, they should fight for
a rewrite of the tiebreaker
rules.
Muddying the waters (to
steal a Brilesism) with un-
fit options to expand to 12
teams isn't a well thought-
out answer, but it'll be a re-
luctant topic of discussion
again. A fight to stay at 10
and gain a waiver for a con-
ference title game will get
talked up, too, now that the
committee has expressed its
preferences. Again, not the
instant solution you might
think.
All these options are on
the table starting Monday.
As Bowlsby has confessed,
it’s time to do some real
rethinking. The committee
made its statement: The Big
12 is taking the wrong route
to the playoff.
Good luck convincing
peers to follow along to a
new eight-team destination.
No matter how much sense
it might make, one year in,
it feels too far away. And
there’s too much the Big 12
can fix in the meantime.
Who’s Out?
Baylor Celebrates their victory over TCU ear-
ly on in the season. The win helped Baylor win
a share of the Big 12, but no luck getting into
the Top 4.
Baylor pulls away from TCU late
after TCU led going into the fourth.

N
ear the end of
Baylor coach
Art Briles’
news conference Sunday,
after he had been asked
more than a few times
to describe his feelings
about the Bears being left
out of the inaugural four-
team College Football
Playoff, he’d apparently
had enough.
“We’re in a room that
feels like we just lost a
football game,” Briles
said. “That to me is a
travesty. That’s what I
hate. We won a big game
last night, and we’re Big
12 champions. Get happy
or get your ass out.
“That’s the way I feel.
I mean, seriously. I mean,
my goodness, somebody
ask me about winning.
We won. Our guys are
good.”
On Saturday night,
the Bears defeated Kan-
sas State 38-27 to earn
a share of the Big 12
championship with TCU,
which was a 55-3 winner
over Iowa State earlier in
the day. It was the second
straight season in which
Baylor won at least a
share of the Big 12 title.
But on Sunday, both
teams were left out of the
College Football Playoff,
as Big Ten champion
Ohio State was chosen by
the 12-person selection
committee for the fourth
and final spot.
In the first year of the
playoff, the Big 12 is the
only Power 5 conference
that will be watching
from home.
“I’m like everybody
else,” Briles said. “I cer-
tainly would have liked
to have been in it, but it
didn’t work out that way.
What am I going to do?
Moan and whine we’re
not in? We’ll move on
and take it from there. I
don’t think it makes any
difference what I say
now.”
The Bears and Horned
Frogs certainly have
every right to be angry.
They could each argue
they are among the top
four teams in the country
and deserve a spot in the
playoff.
But the Big 12 has
only itself to blame.
It is the only Power 5
league that doesn’t stage
a conference champi-
onship game and didn’t
have an outright cham-
pion this season. Its two
best teams, Baylor and
TCU, were further flawed
because of relatively soft
nonconference schedules
compared to Ohio State.
By: Mark Schlabach
How will the Big 12 Make the
Playoff?
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