Chris Klieman says schedule tweaks will help more Big 12 football teams reach playoff
Chris Klieman doesn’t like the way some college football pundits talk about the Big 12.
Whenever one of the best teams in the conference suffers a loss — like BYU and Colorado did last weekend — the Kansas State football coach thinks most people react by saying “this league stinks.”
Things seem to work differently for teams in the Big Ten and the SEC. When teams like Penn State, Indiana, Alabama and Mississippi lose a game, Klieman thinks many people react by saying their “league is really good.”
“I don’t understand that,” Klieman said during his weekly news conference on Monday.
He later added: “What’s going on right now isn’t fair to the Big 12.”
Klieman spoke passionately about the topic because the perception of Big 12 football is more important than ever as the College Football Playoff approaches.
BYU was the top-ranked team in the conference last week at No. 14, followed by No. 16 Colorado, No. 21 Arizona State and No. 22 Iowa State. Those four teams are currently tied for first in the Big 12 standings.
K-State (8-3, 5-3 Big 12) climbed to as high as No. 16 in the CFP rankings but fell out completely after it lost to the Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils and the Cyclones will likely lead the way this week after the Cougars and the Buffaloes lost. But they will all face an uphill battle trying to catch up to other two-loss teams from other conferences like Georgia and Tennessee. It may even be hard for them to catch teams with three losses like Alabama and Mississippi.
Klieman thinks that is ridiculous. So much so, that he wants the Big 12 to explore new scheduling strategies to level the playing field.
“As a conference, we need to get together and figure some things out,” Klieman said. “Because for a bunch of teams to be (10-2 or 9-3) and us only get one of those teams in the College Football Playoff, then we’ve got to cancel one of these games. I don’t care what people say, we go to eight games in league play. Or we stay with nine but play an FCS team or play a Group of Five team.”
Every Big 12 football team currently plays a conference schedule of nine games each season. The conference also requires its teams to play at least one game against another power conference team outside of league play.
The idea is for Big 12 teams to play a difficult schedule, which could help them with the selection committee compared to SEC teams that only play eight conference games.
Removing one of those games could hurt in that area.
“I don’t care,” Klieman said. “Say what you want, 10-2 looks better than 9-3. We’re going to visit at this year’s conference meetings, and we have to do things to benefit our league in regards to the 12-team playoff, not to just benefit our league in general.”
Klieman thinks a new approach is needed if the Big 12 hopes to keep up with the Big Ten and the SEC.
“We need to be able to get two or three teams in the Big 12 into the playoff,” Klieman said. “The carnage that you’re seeing is going to allow for one team, most likely. I wish we would get two, but it’s probably going to allow for one. We can control that. I really believe that. We just have got to get everybody on the same page.”