The Big 12 was shutout of the college football playoff this year, and part of the blame falls on the schools for not scheduling tougher out of conference matchups. Baylor finished as the highest ranked team from the conference and their out of conference schedule consisted of SMU, Buffalo, and Northwestern State. That’s about as soft as you can get when it comes to scheduling OOC games, and I hope it changes going forward. Oklahoma State AD Mike Holder feels the same way as he recently spoke on the issue of not only the Big 12’s OOC issue, but Oklahoma State’s in particular. He had an interesting comment about head coach Mike Gundy when it came to him wanting to schedule tougher opponents.
“It’s important for us to schedule competitive games nonconference,” Holder said. “That’s all of us. Really the best way to build our brand is step outside our conference and beat some good opponents.”
“It’s not about bowl eligibility anymore,” Holder said he told them. “Guys, we can control that nonconference schedule. As a group, we’ve got to decide if we’re going to schedule for bowl eligibility or we’re going to schedule to win a national championship. And everyone in this room directly affects this league.”
Holder said every Big 12 team’s schedule “impacts the team we’re trying to push up to play in that (championship) game. So shame on us. Let’s do some things about the things we can control.”
In the past, Holder and OSU coach Mike Gundy have disagreed over scheduling. Gundy prefers a softer path before Big 12 play.
“My football coach doesn’t want to play anybody any good, definitely, but jiminy Christmas, we looked pretty good against Florida State,” Holder said of the 2014 season opener, which the Cowboys lost 37-31. “Until we beat OU, that was the highlight of our season.”
I wonder how that comment is going to go over between Gundy and his AD when they speak next. To be fair though Holder is right, the Big 12 as a whole needs to schedule tougher opponents or else this will continue to happen. Until the Big 12 adds two more teams and gets a conference title game again, they will be at a disadvantage with the rest of the Power 5 conferences.