Conference championship football games have quickly carved a niche in intercollegiate athletics.
Many fans don’t even remember the days when two divisional champions within some conferences didn’t play each other for the league title in early December — the conference postseason is that much a part of the culture in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

For institutions in the Southeastern, Big 12, and Atlantic Coast Conferences, it represents an automatic berth in one of the lucrative Bowl Championship Series games. Mid-American Conference and Conference USA championship-game winners are guaranteed spots in other bowl games as well.
The SEC started the trend, launching its championship game in 1992 after the league added South Carolina and Arkansas as its 11th and 12th members, thus providing a six-team, two-division structure. League officials have maintained that expansion drove the football game, not the other way around. The game has attracted more than 1.3 million fans — 13 of the 16 games have been sellouts. The last 14 games have been in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome after the first two at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Our game is one that will be sold out regardless of who’s playing,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. “In the galaxy of major events throughout the country every year, this is one that has taken its rightful place as a major intercollegiate athletics event in and of its own right.”
The Big 12 has rotated its championship game among St. Louis; Kansas City, Missouri; Irving, Texas; San Antonio; and Houston since its inception in 1996.

The ACC, a relative newcomer to the postseason proceedings, conducted its third championship game December 1. Jacksonville has been the site so far, but the league is examining other possibilities.

The MAC has played its title game in Detroit’s Ford Field since 2004, and Conference USA grants the title game to the team with the best winning percentage in conference games.

Thinking outside the box

The SEC’s expansion in 1992 set the wheels in motion for a championship game since there were too many teams for an inclusive schedule to decide a league champion. Former SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer was familiar with an NCAA rule allowing conferences of 12 or more members to pit division winners in a championship game.

The rule’s roots actually are in Division II. The original proposal was No. 125 at the 1987 NCAA Convention, sponsored by the Division II Steering Committee on behalf of two leagues at the time large enough to operate in a divisional structure. And since it was 1987 — 10 years before the Association federated its governance — when a federated piece of legislation was proposed, all three divisions voted on it regardless of whether it affected them. Thus, the 12-institution rule became law for Division I as well.

Kramer said the biggest obstacles to adopting the championship game were to decide upon a division alignment and convince institutions to give up some of their traditional rivalries to accommodate the new slate. The league agreed on an eight-game conference schedule that allowed traditional nonconference rivalries such as Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech and South Carolina-Clemson to be retained.

“I was amazed at how our fans and media adapted to divisional play,” Kramer said. “They began talking about how a certain game was critical to divisional play if a team wanted to reach the championship game. What divisional play did was heighten interest in games late in the year.”
A few critics, though, said the SEC’s revenue-producing championship game put the league’s chance of winning a national championship at risk. But the first SEC championship game saw favored Alabama beat Florida on its way to a national crown. Since then the league has had Florida (1996 and 2006), Tennessee (1998) and LSU (2003) win national championships. The SEC championship game knocked a team out of the national race only once when LSU upset No. 2-ranked Tennessee in 2001.

Others follow

While the SEC experimented, other Division I conferences watched closely.

“There was a lot of interest when the SEC started as to whether it would work,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “It is just like people are looking at the Big Ten Network right now. It is kind of out there as a potential model for the future. As soon as we had 12 members, we had already made the decision that we would go to a football championship game.”

It wasn’t unusual for the SEC to field calls from other conferences about setting up a system that worked for their respective leagues.

“People wanted to know about the logistics of how we managed things,” said SEC Executive Associate Commissioner Mark Womack. “We shared all the information we had, and they wanted to come to our game and see how everything worked behind the scenes.”

The SEC holds a Fanfare the day before the title game in which sponsors set up interactive exhibits and displays. About 30,000-35,000 people make their way to Atlanta’s World Congress Center to take part in the Fanfare. A luncheon featuring the two championship-game head coaches is held the day before kickoff. That’s followed by the Legends Dinner on the night before the game in which each institution nominates one of its all-time greats to be recognized.

Other conferences have followed suit.

The events held on the eve of the SEC championship game have corporate sponsorships. But the game itself remains unsponsored.

“Our presidents and athletics directors don’t title our basketball tournament, our baseball tournament or the football game,” Slive said. “People understand they leave money on the table, but to have a clean venue with the Southeastern Conference name being the upfront name has meant a great deal.”

Some people have speculated that a football championship game was the driving force behind conference expansion, but none of the leagues that have a postseason game have said so.

The Big 12 came to be when four former members of the Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor) merged with the Big Eight Conference. A championship football game ensued. Kansas State was victimized by the championship game in 1998 when a loss to Texas A&M cost the Wildcats a shot at the national crown. The Big 12 might also suffer a casualty this year. At press time, top-ranked Missouri’s participation in the national championship game was dependent upon the Tigers beating Oklahoma in the Big 12 title tilt. Ironically, an Oklahoma win likely would produce a BCS title game pitting West Virginia and Ohio State, teams from leagues that do not have championship games.

Like the ACC, Conference USA’s championship football game also is entering its third season. The league shifted membership when a portion of the league departed for the Big East, Atlantic 10 and Mountain West Conferences.

When looking for new members, Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said his membership searched for institutions that would make a strong league in all sports. Once the new members came on board, it paved the way for a football title game.

The league likes the way the game has matured. The first title game drew more than 50,000 fans to Orlando’s Citrus Bowl Stadium, and last season a standing-room-only crowd filled the University of Houston.

Not having a predetermined site may limit some corporate sponsorship, but it’s the best way for the league to operate since Conference USA features institutions from El Paso, Texas, to Greenville, North Carolina.

“In a perfect world we would have a predetermined site, and the sponsors could go in and activate in that market well in advance of the game,” Banowsky said. “It does make it more challenging. Those who have played in the game thought it was a good show, though.”

Indeed, college football fans in leagues with championship games are growing accustomed to a good show, even after the regular season is over.