Majority of Big 12 head coaches favor conference championship game

The Big 12 is the only Power Five conference that doesn’t have a championship game. During the league’s spring teleconference on Tuesday, most of the league’s coaches expressed support for a change – especially it would help a team from the league earn one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff.

If Baylor and TCU – the league’s co-champions – played again last season in a title game, would it have pushed one into the playoff instead of Ohio State, who destroyed Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten title game? If that’s the case, the majority of league coaches want to see a change.

“If it makes a difference if we would get into the playoff, yes,” TCU head coach Gary Patterson said, per the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “If that’s important to our conference, then do it.”

The Big 12 is currently prohibited from having a championship game since it has only 10 members, but it has been widely reported that the NCAA would allow an exception for the Big 12 beginning in 2016. The issue will be discussed at the Big 12 spring meetings in May, according to the Star-Telegram.

"I think it'd be great," said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, per The Oklahoman. "One thing I've always been a proponent of is everybody doing the same thing. Back when the Big 12 had a champion game and other leagues didn't, we were complaining about that. Being on the same level I think is important. Last year, I think it kind of hurt the Big 12 a little bit. Being on the same playing field is what everyone's after."

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops agrees with Holgorsen.

“If the selection committee is weighting and putting a scoring system to number of wins, number of games played, that extra game, if it matters that much, then I would be in favor of playing it,” Stoops said.

Kansas State’s Bill Snyder and Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury also said they’d support a championship game.

“Based on what happened last year, it’s not as much about being for it or against it. It’s a matter of getting another quality game for our teams to keep up with the other Power Five leagues,” Kingsbury said.

Despite many coaches showing support, there were still a few coaches who aren’t on board, including Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Texas’ Charlie Strong and Iowa State’s Paul Rhoads.

"I still think if you win our league, you're going to have a really, really good chance to get in the final four," Gundy said, via The Oklahoman. "If we had labeled one team this year (TCU or Baylor) as the Big 12 Conference champion, we would have gotten a team in this season. My personal opinion is, (the College Football Playoff)’s going to eight teams before we know it. I think I saw where there is a $200 million profit through the playoff system. I'm just not sure whether we should have a conference championship or just play our games."

Baylor coach Art Briles, whose team finished fifth in the final rankings, said if a team goes undefeated in league play, it won’t have an issue making the Playoff field.

“If you can go undefeated in our league, you’ll be in the College Football Playoff,” Briles said. “Whether that would have made a difference last year, I don’t know. That’s something we can all speculate on and still not know.”

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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