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Big 12 ADs favor head-to-head football tiebreaker

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) It is too late to help Baylor, but the Big 12 athletic directors want one true champion to be more than just a slogan next season.

The conference ADs said Thursday they are in favor of using a head-to-head tiebreaker to determine their College Football Playoff participant after co-champions TCU and Baylor were skipped over by the selection committee last season.

The athletic directors met at a hotel near the Sprint Center, the site of this week's conference basketball tournament. While no official vote was taken, the consensus was support for using head-to-head results to determine who makes the four-team field.

TCU and Baylor both went 8-1 in the league last season, but the Bears beat the Horned Frogs in October. Rather than choose one of them, the Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby crowned them co-champions, which didn't sit well with Baylor coach Art Briles.

It also wasn't a good look for a conference that could not have been more proud - and loud - about touting its ''One True Champion'' before the season. The Big 12, with 10 teams, is the only FBS conference that plays a full round-robin schedule.

But in reality the Big 12 wanted to hedge its bets when it came to the College Football Playoff selection process. Not wanting to diminish either team tied for at the top, it treated both as equals and let the committee sort it out. The selection guidelines call for the committee to emphasize conference championships.

How much not crowning a true champion hurt the Big 12 when it came time for the selection committee to pick a final four was hard to quantify. Being the only Big Five conference without a league championship game seemed to be even more problematic. Especially when Ohio State romped into the last playoff spot with a 59-0 Big Ten championship game victory against Wisconsin.

That same day TCU pounded lowly Iowa State and Baylor beat Kansas State at home to end their regular seasons 11-1.