The Big XII, of course, is going to petition the NCAA to permit them to have a conference championship game with only 10 teams. It turns out, however, that the Big XII isn't alone in its quest to breach the 12-team, divisional-format rule--the ACC is going to ask for the same thing.

"Why?" you might ask. After all, the ACC already has 12 teams, two divisions, and a conference championship game. The reason is that the ACC wants to do away with its divisional format and send the top two teams to the championship. The strategy has to do mainly with the embarrassingly bad ACC Coastal division. The argument goes that in 2012 and 2013, FSU and Clemson were clearly the best teams, but the Noles were matched up against Georgia Tech and Duke.

So why not let the two best teams face off? Well, because it's pointless. In the 2012 and 2013 situations, FSU and Clemson did play it off, with the Noles winning both games by a margin of 100-51. Not exactly compelling, championship football there. If the two best teams are in the same division, they'll play each other anyway; if they're not, they'll meet in the conference championship game. The ACC's logic amounts to nothing, at least on the field.

These proposals are going to be presented as "deregulation," but what the Big XII and the ACC are really asking for is conference welfare. This doesn't have anything to do with crowning a champion or creating a compelling matchup--it's about increasing the chances of a representative from the weakling conferences of power football making the playoffs. The ACC championship game might not produce a significant power matchup, making it harder on Florida State (let's be real, no one else is a threat to make it in from the ACC) to make a case at the end. Since the Noles continued to drop despite being undefeated, it's spooked the ACC into making this appeal.

The Big XII--and by that, we're really just saying Texas and Oklahoma--wants its cake and to eat it too, as always. They want to have 10 teams, a conference championship game, and a better shot at not being left at the kids table in the postseason. Why, however, should the other leagues humor the Big XII? The SEC, the B1G, and the Pac-12 all made moves to 12 teams predicated on following this rule and creating a conference championship game. If the rule hadn't been in place, they might not have made some of the moves that they made. Would the Pac-12 have taken Colorado and Utah? Would the SEC, pioneers of the concept, taken Arkansas and South Carolina if they could have had a championship game without them? Maybe, but there's nothing special about the Big XII. Texas and Oklahoma have the conference they demanded; it's too bad if they made poor decisions, and it's not the SEC's--or the B1G's, Pac-12's, or NCAA's--obligation to help them escape the consequences.

These moves aren't about making the sport better, or providing compelling matchups, or even improving the conferences. It's really about helping Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida State while continuing to prop up the ACC and the Big XII, one of which is chronically weak and the other chronically dysfunctional. The SEC, B1G, Pac-12, and the NCAA should say no, not merely for their own sakes, but also for the sake of college football.