A Last Gasp for the North

by Seth Herrold
R-T Sports Editor
The 2010 football season is here and with it comes the last year for the Big 12 Conference as we know it. After this season, Nebraska is headed to the Big 10 and Colorado will move to the Pac 10 for the 2012 season. This leaves 11 teams in 2011 and 10 in 2012, which means nine conference games a year and only three non-conference games.

That’s right, every team will play everybody. No more divisions, no more title game and for the North Division schools, the ones who will be left anyway, no more ducking Texas or Oklahoma or both every other year.
The thing about the old format that was so intriguing, especially for us fans of the North Division schools, was that no matter what, you always had a shot at the conference title. All you had to do was win your division against schools of similar talent and then hope to get lucky against Texas or Oklahoma in the title game. That isn’t going to happen anymore, No more backing your way into the title game and then hoping for a good game and a little luck. To win a title now, you are going to have to win it on your record and that will be tough playing both Texas and Oklahoma every year, not to mention facing Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, which between the three always produce one or two quality squads.
Standing in the way of the North Division schools wanting to get into that title game, in what will be their last chance to do so, is the school that is the cause of the title game’s scheduled death: Nebraska. The Huskers, who were the first team to leave the Big 12 and start the crumbling of the conference, are the pre-season favorites on everybody’s list this year to win the North and play for the title in the Big 12’s final championship game. They are a top 10 team and Head Coach Bo Pelini has revived the Big Red to its glory days of the Big 8. So not only is this Missouri and friends’ final chance to get into the title game, it’s also the final chance to get one last jab in against Nebraska. A win over the Huskers this year would be a jab as well, but the boost it would give a team in the North standings is the real victory.
As a Mizzou fan, I see 2007 and 2008 as two great seasons, but I can’t help but be disappointed that the Tigers weren’t able to pull out a conference title in one of those two seasons. 2007 was the best opportunity, but ’08 was more of a case where the Tigers were lucky to get into the title game. In any event, 2010 has that last-gasp feel to it. This is the last time Missouri, or any of the other Big 12 North schools that will still be in the league next year, can get to that title game where, as Nebraska showed us last year, anything can happen. If you want a conference title for your team, you better be pulling hard for them in 2010.
Now saying all of this, I would like to point out that had there not been a conference title game in 2007, the Tigers would have won the Big 12 Conference title outright. They had the best record in the Big 12 and the win over Kansas at Arrowhead would have been the last game of the regular season, leaving the Tigers with a number one ranking and a conference crown. They would have sat and waited to play for the national championship against West Virginia. As it turned out, however, both the Tigers and the Mountaineers lost their respective title games. So looking at it that way, there is still a chance the Tigers could capture a conference title after the re-alignment. In 2007, however, Mizzou didn’t play Texas and they lost their game against Oklahoma.
Now I am not sitting here saying winning a conference title when you have to play everybody in the league is impossible for any team other than Texas and Oklahoma; but I am saying competing with the blue bloods for that crown is going to be a very, very difficult task. I am a die-hard fan, though, so I will be cheering on the Tigers to win the Big 12 in the years to come. It would just be a whole lot easier to do it this year