The Division I Council of the NCAA approved a proposal on Wednesday to allow FBS conferences without 12 members (i.e. Big 12 Conference) to have a conference championship football game.

Although this approval could directly affect the Big 12, a 10-member conference, Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said it may be too soon to expect a Big 12 Conference championship game.

“It is too early to speculate on the impact this will have without member institutions regarding a football championship game.” – Bob Bowlsby

“It is too early to speculate on the impact this will have without member institutions regarding a football championship game,” Bowlsby said.

“I appreciate that what was acted upon today takes into account our unique 10-team, full round-robin scheduling model. However, this vote does not automatically mean the Big 12 will implement a football championship game,” Bowlsby said.

Bowlsby was quick to shut down speculation of the Big 12 adding a championship game to its football season in immediate response to the DI Council, but did not say the conference and its members were completely opposed to the idea altogether.

“Our membership will continue to analyze its pros and cons, as we now know the requirements should we decide to go down that path,” Bowlsby said.

The DI Council outlined two possible ways for non-12-member conferences to conduct a championship football game: “i) A game between division champions of a member conference that is divided into two divisions (as equally balanced as possible), each of which conducts round-robin, regular-season competition among the members of that division; or, ii) A game between the top two teams in the conference standings following a full round-robin regular-season schedule of competition among all members of the conference.”