Bob Bowlsby Is Great For The Big 12

The Big 12 has the right man in charge. New commissioner Bob Bowlsby didn’t wait long to prove he is the perfect man for the job.

When Bowlsby was the athletic director at Stanford, he demanded excellence and received nothing short of it. Bowlsby oversaw one of the country’s largest athletic programs. And even with the unique academic standards the school requires, Stanford was still looked at as one the best athletic programs in the nation.

Since 2006, Bowlsby’s first year, the Cardinal went from a 1-11 bottom feeder in the Pac-10 (now the Pac-12), to BCS appearances in two of the last three years. Bowlsby is also responsible for the hires of Jim Harbaugh, and his successor Mike Shaw, two coaches who have helped Stanford rise in the Pac-12.

Monday was the beginning of the Big 12 Media Days and there’s no doubt the same fire will be applied to Bowlsby’s new conference.

Bowlsby spoke about scheduling philosophies, the four team playoff, expansion and the value of college football’s regular season.

“The second two thirds of the season are terrific,” Bowlsby said. “But the first month of the season is not always terrific. As we shape what will become the new post-season, we have to make sure it’s fair, it’s transparent, it’s understandable.”

A question that’s probably on every coach, AD, and commissioners’ mind since the four team playoff was announced is; will teams schedule higher profile games to gain the selection committee’s favor, or will the cupcake non-conference schedules be stronger than ever?

“But we also have to do things on how we structure the selection, make sure we encourage high-level matchups in the month of September.”

Bowlsby has a point about September being a down month in terms of matchups. Using 2011 as an example to his theory, there was only a few non-conference matchups that can be considered high level. No. 3 Oregon vs. No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Boise State vs. No. 19 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama at Penn State, and No. 1 Oklahoma at No. 6 Florida State was it as far as September. Fans would love to see more of these types of matchups at the beginning of the season.

While it’s not necessarly feasible for the early season schedule slate to include marquee matchup after marquee matchup, it’s better to see Oklahoma play a top 50 team, rather than Florida A&M.

“Putting together a schedule that never takes you off your campus, that doesn’t play against intersectional opponents, that don’t create matchups that are significant for the media and comparative of other teams, that will be penalized.”

Bowlsby on conference expansion

“At the end of the season, not only do we identify a true champion, our true champion is going to have the opportunity to get to that four-team playoff,” Bowlsby said. “We’ve seen lots of times the two best teams in the league come together, and one of them is damaged goods when it’s over. We like the situation we’re in right now.”

Bowlsby would be wise to just sit back and wait to see how the rest of the landscape shapes up in the next two years. He’s happy with where the conference is at now and for good reason. The additions of TCU and West Virginia boasted the overall quality of the Big 12. However, if the right team came along and wanted to become a member of this “fraternity” as Bowlsby refers to the conference as, it’s possible expansion may happen.

In his short time as Big 12 Commissioner, Bob Bowlsby has shown a pride and passion for his new conference that the conference will need moving forward in the ever changing landscape of college football.