Whereas the various eventualities for which two groups would advance to the Large 12 soccer championship recreation offered thrilling fodder for followers, it additionally reveals that the league must institute divisions to remove the chaos and questions that popped up throughout November’s ultimate days.
Whereas the Colorado Buffaloes took care of enterprise in an enormous method in a 52-0 shellacking of Oklahoma State of their ultimate recreation on Friday afternoon, head coach Deion Sanders and his workforce needed to wait till late Saturday night time for Brigham Younger to beat Houston to be taught the workforce’s Large 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 had been cemented into the Large 12 title recreation, incomes the tiebreaker over BYU and Colorado. Every of the 4 groups completed Large 12 play with a 7-2 file, however the Solar Devils and Cyclones each owned tiebreakers that pushed them into the championship.
For Colorado, not advancing was maybe the bitterest tablet 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.
Positive, Colorado might have helped its personal trigger by avoiding a three-point residence 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 value 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. Nevertheless, a division setup that will 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 moderately than by way of tiebreakers.
Within the first yr of a bigger Large 12 (16 groups) and Large 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 dangerous luck for the Large 12, but additionally introduced a convention flaw into the highlight.
And it wasn’t simply Colorado that was in that state of affairs as nicely. 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 high 4 groups.
Sure, the Large 12 Championship Recreation will pit two of the league’s high groups towards one another. Nevertheless, it is also secure to marvel if it could have been the identical matchup had divisions helped decide the sport’s members as a substitute of tiebreakers.
