The reason being the return next season of a football championship game in the Big 12 and the structure and process for determining which two teams will play for the conference title.
The Big 12 announced on Friday that the structure of the conference would remain as is and that it would not return to the division structure that was in place previously when the conference held a championship game in football.
This seems like a very pragmatic and simple way of approaching the issue. Given the fact that, with 10 teams and a round-robin schedule, every team plays the other nine teams, it is not really necessary to divide the conference into two five-team divisions.