Big 12 to bring back football championship in 2017

IRVING, Texas (AP) The Big 12 is bringing back its football championship game in 2017.

Commissioner Bob Bowlsby says the conference's presidents and chancellors voted Friday to approve ''in concept the re-implementation of a championship football game.''

How the 10-team conference will decide which teams play in the championship is still to be determined. The Big 12 currently plays a nine-game, round-robin schedule, with no divisions, but that could change even if the conference does not add members.

Bowlsby says: ''We have a lot of details to work out.'' The league has made no decision on whether to expand.

The NCAA recently approved the Big 12's request to allow conferences to hold football championship games with less than the previously required 12 teams split into two divisions.