Art Briles was angry when the Big 12 decided to declare co-champions, and he had no problem addressing his issues with conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Briles, and many others around the country, took issue with the fact that the conference wanted to declare Baylor and TCU co-champions despite the fact that Baylor defeated TCU earlier in the season.
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Briles' point seems valid, as most sports generally use the results from head-to-head matchups as the first tiebreaker among teams with identical overall records. The conference decided to declare co-champions because they hoped it would give them a better shot at getting two teams into the playoff; instead, it may have prevented them from getting anyone in.
According to media reports, Briles spoke out after the game (but before Baylor was left out of the playoff) about how he thought it was unfair and even invoked the conference's motto of "One True Champion."
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"That was my deal," said Briles. "If you are going to slogan it around and say there's one true champion, then all of a sudden you are going to go out the back door instead of the front. Don't say one thing and do another. I'm not obligated to [Bowlsby,] I'm obligated to Baylor University and our football team. We happen to be a part of the Big 12 and happen to be champions two years in a row. So they have to be obligated to us because we're helping the Big 12′s image in the nation."
Playoff selection committee chairman Jeff Long admitted that the lack of a conference championship game was a huge factor for Baylor and TCU because it allowed a team like Ohio State to play a 13th game against a quality opponent.
Long on Big 12: "We were presented with co champions. In the other situations, we had definitive champions for that conference."
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 7, 2014
There was speculation anyway that OSU could crash the playoff party after their 59-0 demolition of Wisconsin, which was one of the most impressive victories by any team all season.
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