Big 12 reinstates conference football title game for 2017

The Big 12 Conference will once again feature a football conference championship game after the 10-member league unanimously approved it on Friday.

The title game will return during the 2017 season.

The approval came in voting from conference presidents and chancellors, according to commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

'I think it's exciting for our league,' Iowa State head football coach Matt Campbell said in a statement. 'A championship game is something that the fans seem to embrace and it's another opportunity to showcase our conference to a national audience.'

The Big 12 last held a conference title game in 2010, before Colorado and Nebraska left, and was the lone Power 5 conference without one.

In recent years, the Big 12 often pointed out it was the lone league deciding a true champion as its schools played a nine-game, round-robin schedule.

But off-season discussions provided the view that not having a conference title game was hurting the league's prospects of getting a team into the four-team College Football Playoff. No announcement was made on how divisions would be split.

Earlier this year, the NCAA ruled a 10-team conference could hold a conference title game. The rule previously stated a league must have 12 teams.

Bowlsby said the championship game will provide an estimated $27-28 million in extra revenue.

The Big 12 hasn't ruled out expanding to 12 teams.