Back in the formative stages of the College Football Playoff, the Big 12 thought it had the best formula.
Never mind a championship game. The Big 12 was the only one of the five power conferences with a round-robin schedule in which everyone played everyone. No omissions. No holes in the conference résumé. No fluke titles.
Who needed a title game? Upon further review, the Big 12 did. No need to rehash the history of the 13th data point.
Turns out that best path to the playoff might be the conference schedule, just not the testing version championed by the Big 12.