Big 12 elects to keep tiebreaker

Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) - The Big 12 conference decided to keep a three-way tiebreaker system that drew tons of controversy last season when Oklahoma was given the South title over Texas and earned the right to play in the conference title game.

There was a proposal in place to chance the tiebreaker rule, but it was shot down by coaches during the conference's annual gathering in Phoenix.

Oklahoma finished the 2008 regular season in a three-way tie with Texas and Texas Tech for first place in the loaded Big 12 South Division. The Sooners, who suffered their only loss of the season to Texas, crushed Texas Tech, but were ahead of both the Longhorns and Red Raiders in the BCS standings. For that reason, Bob Stoops' troops earned the right to face Missouri in the conference title game.

A majority of seven votes was needed to accept the proposal to change the rule, but instead it was taken under advisement by Big 12 athletic directors, who still could make a change at the spring meetings later this month.

"The tiebreaker system we had was felt, by the majority of coaches, to be appropriate to what we want to accomplish," Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said. "There are risks in either one. We had one risk last year."

The three-way tiebreaker proposal is similar to ones used by the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences. It calls for the tied team with the highest ranking in the BCS standings to be the divisional representative in the Big 12 Championship game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five or fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to- head result of the top-two ranked tied teams would determine the representative in the Big 12 title contest.

The current Big 12 rule only calls for the highest-ranked BCS team to advance.

Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech all finished 7-1 in the Big 12 South. When the BCS standings were applied, Oklahoma beat Texas by .013 of a point. The Sooners went on to win the Big 12 championship game and played in the BCS title game, losing to Florida.

Under the new proposed tiebreaker system, Texas would have played in the conference title game.

The athletic directors apparently rejected the proposal because it's possible a te

am could get a shot at the national title while not playing in the Big 12 championship game.

Date of Article: Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:44 pm

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