The Big 12 might split into 2 divisions. Here's one OK proposal and some dumb ones.

Hi, the Big 12 is re-adding a conference championship despite having 10 teams who all already play each other.

Some 12- and 14-team conferences wind up with rematches in their title games, but those are far from guaranteed. The Big 12 is all about new things.

The reason for such a thing? It's complicated and involves many technical aspects, some of which are difficult to understand without a nuanced analysis. This is perhaps the most thorough explanation, complex as it is:

Boren says annual average value of football title game is estimated at $27-$28 million.

— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) June 3, 2016

Thanks!

The conference is also talking about splitting its 10 teams into two divisions. [Update: On July 18, commissioner Bob Bowlsby said he supports such a thing.] The alternative would be to just use the two teams with the best conference records, who definitely already played each other, as noted. If there was a tie, the Big 12 could just fall back on its tiebreakers. It has those now!

All the teams already play each other (ICYMI), so I can only think of one very specific reason for doing divisions, which we'll get into below. Let's try to solve this bizarre problem.

1. Strict geography

Going strict North and South gives us a group that wants to stay and a group that's often rumored to be headed elsewhere.

Big 12 North	Pac-16 Southeast
Iowa State	Baylor
Kansas	Oklahoma
Kansas State	TCU
Oklahoma State	Texas
West Virginia	Texas Tech

Hmmm. North and South didn't work too well before. Let's try East and West.

Big East	SEC West West
Iowa State	Baylor
Kansas	Oklahoma
Kansas State	TCU
Oklahoma State	Texas
West Virginia	Texas Tech

Ah. That's the same.

2. A modified version of that, to avoid a specific rematch

Something like this is a relatively fine idea.

Big 12 North	Texas and West Virginia
Iowa State	Baylor
Kansas	TCU
Kansas State	Texas
Oklahoma	Texas Tech
Oklahoma State	West Virginia

Last year, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State decided the conference title in their annual season-closing rivalry. With a conference title game, they could've met again one week later to do the same thing all over again.

Putting them in the same division would help ensure the guaranteed rematch isn't of a matchup that happened seven days prior. And it doesn't really matter which division WVU is in, since it's a mighty voyage away from every other team in the conference anyway.

The Big 12's other major rivalries would either be contained within divisions or earlier in the year (the Sooners and Longhorns play every October).

Note: the good idea involves lumping these two states together:

3. Let's scrap geography. If they're all playing each other (they are), that doesn't really matter much anyway.

I looked at each team's average SRS rating since joining the conference, and split them up evenly according to that. Any tweaks you'd make here for total parity? Is this idea actually the fine idea?

Big 12 A	Big 12 B
Baylor	Kansas
Iowa State	TCU
Kansas State	Texas
Oklahoma	Texas Tech
Oklahoma State	West Virginia

Interlude: If the Big 12 does divisions, one logical plan (just add a protected cross-division rivalry for nine games a year) includes Iowa State-Kansas twice a year

Two five-team divisions and a full home/away round robin (eight games) within each division is the only way this makes sense.

— Brian Fremeau (@bcfremeau) June 3, 2016

4. But does each division have its own identity?

Well ...

Football	Basketball
Baylor	Kansas
Kansas State	Iowa State?
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia

... there are a few ways to try for that ...

Whataburger	Burnt Ends	Tudor's	Corn
Baylor	Kansas	West Virginia	Iowa State
Oklahoma	Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech

... but I feel like we're dancing around the right answer here.

5. Whatever. I know. Just do it.

Texas	Texas' Associates
Texas	Baylor
	Iowa State
	Kansas
	Kansas State
	Oklahoma
	Oklahoma State
	TCU
	Texas Tech
	West Virginia

Yep.