MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Big 12 now wields the option of staging a football championship game next season without expanding to 12 members under a rule change approved Wednesday by the NCAA Division I Council.
West Virginia athletics director Shane Lyons spent a combined 12 years working in the ACC and at Alabama, two entities familiar with championship games. His advice should the Big 12 adopt its own variation: Root the game in an indoor stadium where it can become a fan destination and build community support.
“The first couple years of the SEC Championship (in 1992-1993), it wasn’t very successful in Birmingham, but they made a great deal going to Atlanta and that thing has just built to where it’s an event by itself,’” Lyons said. “They know they’re going to sell it out regardless of who’s in there. They found a great home.”
The Pac-12 played its first three title games at the home of the higher-seeded division winner before making the neutral-site move to Santa Clara the past two seasons. The ACC has settled on Charlotte after splitting its first five games between Jacksonville and Tampa.
From 1996 to 2010, the Big 12 spread its championship games across stadiums in Kansas City, St. Louis, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Arlington.
As with expansion, the decision on whether to stage a championship game ultimately rests with the league’s 10 presidents, who no doubt will be strongly influenced by their ADs. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the presidents will vote Feb. 4 in Dallas.
Other highlights from Lyons’ interview with MetroNews:
Big 12 expansion:
After Lyons predicted the NCAA vote would provide ”a roadmap as to where we’re the conference is headed,” the Big 12 isn’t compelled to grow in order to stage a title game alongside other leagues.
However, Lyons estimated he discusses expansion “probably once every couple weeks” with WVU president Gordon Gee, a member of the Big 12 expansion committee.
“It’s in the finding stages,” said Lyons, who suggested growth would hinge upon the ability of new members to help establish a network channel.
Selling beer inside the WVU Coliseum:
“It’s something we’d consider as a result of the success we had at football selling it,” Lyons said.
West Virginia began beer sales at Milan Puskar Stadium in 2012, a move orchestrated by former athletics director Oliver Luck. Adding beer vendors at the school’s 45-year-old basketball arena could come once Lyons’ staff and architects complete renovation plans to widen the concourses and alleviate congestion at concession points.
That project also will rectify the Coliseum’s dire need for more restrooms.
“Beer sales without the proper restrooms was a concern,” he said. “You walk the halls and you see the men’s lines are very long.”
Being passed over at Alabama:
Lyons had spent 17 months in Tuscaloosa as the second-in-command when illness led the man who hired him, the late athletics director Mal Moore, to resign in March 2013.
When Alabama looked outside the department and hired Bill Battle—an ex-Crimson Tide football player and founder of the Collegiate Licensing Company—Lyons didn’t feel slighted.
“Being there only a year and a half and understanding the culture, I wasn’t surprised,” he said. “I didn’t feel that I had earned my stripes there.”
Sought out by Chancellor Robert Whit and university President Judy Bonner within hours of Moore’s departure, Lyons said both felt compelled to seek an AD with deeper ties to Alabama.
“Bill being a graduate and having the business background he had, things worked our great,” Lyons said. “He continued letting me have a little bit of rope to help run the department day-to-day.”
Before the Tide’s national championship victory Monday night, Lyons said he sent about a dozen good-luck texts to former colleagues within the program.