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O’Gara: Whatever you call it, call the Big 12 what it is — America’s conference
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There’s reportedly a chance that any future official mentions of the Big 12 will come with a twist. And by “a twist,” I mean a corporate sponsor. The “Allstate 12” could be a thing.
Welcome to the new era of corporate football. Er, “college” football.
The Big 12 could be called many things moving forward, but for 2024, it deserves a different name. It’s a name that’s far less corporate.
“America’s conference.”
I’m not the first person to mention that. I spent a decent chunk of Thursday trying to find the originator of that phrase, but I came up empty (I believe “Locked On Big 12” and Andy Staples have both used it).
Why is the Big 12 “America’s conference” in 2024? A bunch of reasons.
In a post-Texas/Oklahoma Big 12, it’s not just that the 2 biggest brands are now in the SEC. The current Big 12, which added Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado, doesn’t have a single national champ from the 21st century. Shoot, it doesn’t have a single team that won a national title since 1990 Colorado. Bandwagon? Not so much.
The Big 12 doesn’t have current members who are running the sport. Even with Texas and Oklahoma, its lone Playoff game victory came from TCU … which was quickly erased by a 65-7 loss to Georgia. Unlike Georgia, which is loaded with 5-star talent on its 2-deep, the only current Big 12 member who ranked in the top 30 of the 247sports talent composite in 2023 was No. 19 TCU (9 of the 16 members of the new SEC ranked better than that).
It’s a conference that doesn’t have some massive talent gap in a post-Texas/Oklahoma world, which means it’s a suddenly wide-open race with programs like Kansas State, Utah and … Kansas? Yeah, nobody will hate on a bandwagon Kansas football fan. At least they shouldn’t. If your non-Big 12 team is eliminated from Playoff contention, you should have the freedom to pick a Big 12 team to support.
That’s the other thing. Outside of Deion Sanders’ Colorado, how many teams in the new Big 12 are hated by teams outside the conference? Sure, Oklahoma fans aren’t about to root for Oklahoma State and I suppose Pittsburgh fans aren’t about to become West Virginia supporters. But it’s not a league with a bunch of polarizing national brands.
Speaking of “national,” while everyone is talking about how the Big Ten has become a coast-to-coast conference, can we talk about how the new Big 12 now has teams in Arizona, Florida and West Virginia? You’ve got teams in 3 different time zones. So unlike the Pac-12, which popularized the term “Pac-12 After Dark,” fans from all parts of the country can find a Big 12 time slot that makes sense for their ideal viewing experience.
It’s a 16-team conference that caters to the common fan. What else does the common fan like? Electric quarterback play.
The Big 12 should have that, and not just because Noah Fifita is America’s quarterback. Look at some of the notable names of Big 12 starting quarterbacks:
- Noah Fifita, Arizona
- Cam Rising, Utah
- Shedeur Sanders, Colorado
- Jalon Daniels, Kansas
- Avery Johnson, Kansas State
- KJ Jefferson, UCF
- Garrett Greene, West Virginia
- Rocco Becht, Iowa State
- Donovan Smith, Houston
- Alan Bowman, Oklahoma State
That’s the most electric group of quarterbacks in America. No, I didn’t say it was better than the SEC’s group of signal-callers. But the potential for highlight-reel, unpredictable QB play is more likely in the Big 12 than the SEC. You’ve got at least half the conference with signal-callers who are must-see TV, especially when the play breaks down.
That’s shades of what the Pac-12 was last year. As in, in its final season. It was America’s conference because of the quarterback play and because there was sympathy for it becoming an unfortunate casualty of the TV rights boom.
The Big 12 doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for it after it pivoted in remarkable fashion when some wondered if it would die like the Pac-12. Nope. It adapted. That’s admirable.
There’s a totally different vibe with the Big 12 than the Big Ten and SEC, who might come off a bit elitist to the outside world. It’s also a different vibe than the ACC, which is currently involved in a lawsuit with its 2 most prominent members over the media rights contract.
The Big 12 isn’t about lawsuits or superiority. In a way, it’s football in its purest form. At least it is for now. Like, before it gets renamed.
But then again, even if the Big 12 does get some corporate title slapped on it, ask yourself this. Do you call the Rose Bowl anything other than the Rose Bowl? Or do you still call it the Rose Bowl even though it’s had a corporate sponsor attached to the official name since 1999?
Mind you, that’s for something that’s arguably the most sacred tradition in the sport. With all due respect to the Big 12, that name isn’t sacred. It doesn’t even make sense anymore with 16 teams in the conference, which is something the Big Ten has been willing to overlook for 30 years after Penn State gave the conference its 11th team. Granted, the Big Ten has been a thing since 1917, which isn’t different than the Big 12 forming in 1996.
In other words, don’t let Thursday’s news put a damper on what the new era of the Big 12 is all about. The question will be if it gets respect by the selection committee beyond just an automatic bid. Maybe if the first few Playoff polls don’t reflect Big 12 respect, it could have even more outside support as America’s conference.
America loves an underdog. The Big 12 might not see itself as an underdog. That’s fine. And based on the reactions from Thursday’s report about a potential corporate name addition, some might see the Big 12 as the butt of the joke. That’s fine, too.
The rest of us know that America’s conference will be appointment viewing in 2024.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
