From my understanding, Tom Osborne was never a fan of the Big XII having a championship game when there were other conferences like the Pac-10/Big Ten that did not. The reason being that a championship game lessened the probability that a team would receive a bid to the National Championship game. This discussion hasn't come up as much as the BCS system debate, but does get it's fair share of play. There have been multiple teams that have had their NC opportunity dashed by a loss in the conference championship game.
I've been waiting to pose this until after the game was played this year.
Was it a benefit to us this year? Year in year out is the championship game a benefit or hindrance to the Huskers?
What's your take...
i like it, and here is why.
One, the big12 typically gets a lot of credit for being a difficult conference to play in. A large part of why it is so difficult to get through this conference is because of the championship game. Take it away and i'm not sure how our conference fairs when compared to the Pac 10, Big 10 or Big East.
Two, this year we've seen with Florida how a championship game can give a much needed boost to a team trying to get in at the end of the season. i look at that game as giving us a sort of tie breaker over other conferences.
Three, i really don't see why so many think it's hurting us. Oklahoma lost and still went to the NC, as did NU. five of the previous six years we've had a team from the big 12 in the nc game.
Four, the way the big 10 determines things often ends up with co-champions... imagine if Wisky had beaten Michigan... what a mess that would be. It makes much more sense that the Big 10 should adopt a championship format rather than we drop ours. I don't have a problem with the Pac 10, because as a 10 team league each play 9 games in a round robin style. The way I look at it is their champion plays 9 conference games just as ours does. And related to two above, the way we play our 9 games is likely to give an edge in SOS over how they do theirs.
Five: How else does a 12 team league determine a conference winner? the answer is that is probably doesn't, and the removal of the championship game is probably tied to the disolving of the Big 12 conference.
Six: a championship games allows for increased revenue.