If TCU, Baylor win, Big 12 will have co-champions

The Big 12 is the only Power Five conference not to play a conference championship game and every single team will face one another over the course of the regular season. That unique format led to the conference’s slogan: “one true champion.”

So much for that.

If No. 5 TCU (against Iowa State) and No. 7 Baylor (against No. 12 Kansas State) both win on Saturday and finish the season with an 11-1 overall record, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said on a teleconference Monday that the Bears and Horned Frogs will be declared Big 12 co-champions. Baylor beat TCU 61-58 on Oct. 11, but TCU’s four wins over ranked teams has kept the Horned Frogs above Baylor in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Does Baylor’s head-to-head win outweigh TCU’s supposed stronger collection of wins? Bowlsby said that’s up to the committee, not the Big 12, to decide.

"That's the prerogative of the selection committee," Bowlsby said per ESPN.com. "It's not our prerogative for us to tell them who is our best team. They can choose from an array of teams that are available and qualified for the playoff. It's not within our prerogative to bind the selection committee that way. They're going to select who they think is the best team.”

If neither TCU or Baylor are selected into the Top 4 by the committee, then Bowlsby said the league will apply the tiebreaker of Baylor’s head-to-head win over TCU. A conference champion that does not make it into the Playoff is guaranteed a spot in one of the six Playoff-affiliated bowls.

"The only reason we apply the tiebreaker later on is because we have to, we're the ones who designate who goes into one of those host bowls," Bowlsby said. "In the case of the College Football Playoff, they're the ones who designate who goes into those games. We wouldn't be designating our champion. We would be designating our representative to the host bowl."

Baylor it should make the College Football Playoff if it beats Kansas State on Saturday. The school even hired a public relations firm to assist in its efforts to crack the Top 4.

Baylor has hired a PR firm (Kevin Sullivan Communications) to advocate its case for a playoff spot. Firm says they were hired last week

— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) December 1, 2014

Kevin Sullivan wanted to clarify, his firm not campaigning directly to playoff committee. But rather, advocating Baylor to nat'l media

— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) December 1, 2014

And despite the strong possibility of having co-champions, Bowlsby stands behind the “one true champion” slogan.

"'One True Champion' is really about everybody playing everybody," Bowlsby said. "That's the right way to do it. We believe that playing everyone every year is the right way to determine a champion, even if ends in a tie."

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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