Does A Plus One Format Favor The Likes Of The Current Big XII?

For several years now, college football fans have begged and pleaded for a playoff system of some sort. Of course, it all started with a national title contender losing a conference championship game and still being allowed to play in the BCS Title Match. It was followed up with a team not competing for a conference title on Championship Weekend yet still winning a BCS National Title. Controversy has run rampant in college football however, the BCS Contract will not be placed on the chopping block until the 2014 season and is looking like it is heading toward a "plus one" format. Will this benefit the current set up of the Big XII Conference?

A "plus one" format simply means this: there will be a play in game for the national championship game. Four teams will play in a semi-final with the winners advancing to the title game.

The way the current Big XII is set up is as a 10 team conference with no Conference Championship Game. For the second consecutive year, the Big XII will have to live with the consequences of what unfolded this past season as well as the season before that. Now, in a revamped Big XII, things could be looking up.

The addition of the West Virginia Mountaineers as well as the TCU Horned Frogs, the conference took up step up in level of competition. You can bet that this schedule will help in the long run, but how does a 10 team conference have the upper hand?

Without the conference title game, any Big XII school will have played one less than all the others hoping to land a contender in the playoff of four teams. Look at it this way, one three separate occasions, a Big XII team was on the cusp of reaching the National Title Game yet was ousted by their opponent while leaving broken dreams shattered on the field. If this were to happen again, it would certainly knock someone out of contention.

On the flip side of that, conferences with a title game would be asking their top team to play in three post-season games, all against loft foes. To ask this of anyone would be a tall task in itself. In a single second, everything could change due to an injury etc.

The current Big XII ten team format could possibly dominate the playoff system as the only other major conference without a conference title game is the Big East.

Of course all of this is a big if... Sometimes, things really aren't greener on the other side of the fence.