The Big 12 Conference: No. True. Playoff Teams.

Congratulations, Mr. Bowlsby.  You managed to contribute to perhaps the only possible scenario whereby your two best teams, both of which were more than deserving of making the CFB Playoff, will instead watch the B1G sneak into the final spot.  Your conference, which looked poised at this point yesterday to potentially get both into the Big Dance of CFB, will now have none.  The reason, in large part?  Because you, as Big 12 Commissioner, attempted to play both ends against the middle by not choosing one, allowing another conference with One Clear Champion to leapfrog us both.

I'd be more upset about this result if it wasn't so predictable.  At each step along this path, the Big 12 Conference had the opportunity to elevate one team or the other (and you could switch, other conferences have deftly done so) as our best foot to put forward.  Instead, you tried to soft-pedal things with this ridiculous co-champs solution that actually solved nothing and only opened us up to more criticism for not having a conference championship game.  That's without even mentioning the One. True. Champion slogan fiasco that has made our league a laughingstock.  You tried to play the long game to get both in not realizing that by failing to strengthen one or the other (or, really, both), you actually weakened both.  One the one hand, it's a risk that seems worth running if things broke our way.  On the other, there's almost no rationale for relying on others we can't control to help ensure that things break our way.

The bottom line: somehow, a team from possibly the worst conference in the land that lost to Virginia Tech by 14 at home made the CFB Playoff over your two champions.  Instead of the conference with One. True. Champion, we have No. True. Playoff Teams.  And a lot of that is because of you.