Whereas the numerous situations for which two groups would advance to the Huge 12 soccer championship recreation supplied thrilling fodder for followers, it additionally exhibits that the league must institute divisions to get rid of the chaos and questions that popped up throughout November’s closing days.
Whereas the Colorado Buffaloes took care of enterprise in a giant method in a 52-0 shellacking of Oklahoma State of their closing recreation on Friday afternoon, head coach Deion Sanders and his crew needed to wait till late Saturday evening for Brigham Younger to beat Houston to be taught the crew’s Huge 12 title destiny. A BYU win in the end eradicated Colorado and had Deion Sanders Jr. questioning Houston’s effort level.
With that BYU win, Arizona State and Iowa State have been cemented into the Huge 12 title recreation, incomes the tiebreaker over BYU and Colorado. Every of the 4 groups completed Huge 12 play with a 7-2 document, however the Solar Devils and Cyclones each owned tiebreakers that pushed them into the championship.
For Colorado, not advancing was maybe the bitterest capsule of all to swallow. The Buffaloes didn’t play Iowa State, Arizona State or BYU this season, one of many points that may occur when 16 groups make up the convention.
Certain, Colorado may have helped its personal trigger by avoiding a three-point house loss to Kansas State on October 12 or not fallen 37-21 in a impartial website loss (performed in Kansas Metropolis) to Kansas. These two division losses in the end price the Buffaloes an opportunity to place an exclamation level on a marketing campaign the place Colorado went 9-3 only one season after going 4-8 in 2023 as a member of the Pac-12. Nonetheless, a division setup that might enable the winner of every division to advance to the championship recreation may need (due to proximity) assured Colorado performed Brigham Younger and/or Arizona State, serving to settle the matter on the sector reasonably than by way of tiebreakers.
Within the first yr of a bigger Huge 12 (16 groups) and Huge 10 (18 groups), splitting into divisions is smart from a geographic standpoint and a level-of-play standpoint. Having one of many 7-2 groups not face any of the opposite three 7-2 groups within the common season was unhealthy luck for the Huge 12, but in addition introduced a convention flaw into the highlight.
And it wasn’t simply Colorado that was in that state of affairs as effectively. Iowa State additionally did not play Arizona State, Colorado or BYU within the common season. BYU and Arizona State performed one another within the next-to-last recreation of the common season (a 28-23 win by the Solar Devils in Tempe), marking the one matchup between the convention’s prime 4 groups.
Sure, the Huge 12 Championship Recreation will pit two of the league’s prime groups in opposition to one another. Nonetheless, it is also protected to marvel if it could have been the identical matchup had divisions helped decide the sport’s individuals as an alternative of tiebreakers.