Adding a championship game offers few guarantees for the Big 12

5:49 PM ET

There is money to be made in a Big 12 title game – roughly $30 million – but that’s the only benefit the conference can bank on from its most recent decision to add a championship game in 2017.

A title game doesn’t guarantee a spot in the College Football Playoff (See: Pac-12 2015).

It doesn’t mean it won’t eliminate a team from the top four (See: Iowa 2015).

It means the Big 12’s best team now has one more chance to impress the selection committee against a ranked opponent on the final weekend of the regular season — without expanding. It helps level the playing field, now that the frontrunners in every Power 5 conference have to survive a title game as part of their path to the playoff. It ushers the Big 12 into the playoff era, where the league title games are comparable to an unofficial quarterfinal round.

What it can’t possibly do, though, is account for the human element of the 13 selection committee members, or the fickle nature of the sport.

The Big 12’s decision to add a championship game is further evidence of the power of the playoff. Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

Ohio State can vouch that a spot in the CFP is as unpredictable as winning a national title with a third-string quarterback. The margin between No. 4 and No. 5 is as narrow as Oklahoma’s 30-29 win over TCU last year, and as precarious as just about every game Florida State won in 2014.

For all of the combined PhDs the Big 12 university presidents have, a middle-schooler could figure out that it takes two things to crack the code into the top four: a conference title and a tough schedule. Nowhere in the CFP rules does it demand a title game — and Oklahoma didn’t need one last year to reach the semifinal.

“Oklahoma was one of the best four teams last year …

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