The Big 12 and Pac-12 would have play an interconference championship game as part of an overall scheduling alliance proposed between the two leagues to boost their profiles, according to a document from Kansas State's former president that was obtained by CBS Sports.
The year-old proposal from former K-State president Jon Wefald suggested the two league play their three annual nonconference games against one another. That would create 30 unique Big 12 vs. Pac-12 nonconference games each season in addition to the nine intraconference games played by each league.
At the end of the season, Wefald suggested the league's "could play a game for the interleague championship." Wefald went on to offer another proposition: four-team playoff "for the overall championship" between the conferences.
No action was ever taken on the proposal, which was created in the aftermath of Big 12's expansion study. Wefald made it at the request of West Virginia president Gordon Gee, the chairman of the Big 12 board of directors. You can read Wefald's entire proposal here.
CBS Sports originally wrote about the concept of a scheduling alliance in January 2017.
The San Jose Mercury News dug down on the details of the proposal in a story published this week. Jon Wilner wrote that Wefald's first inclination was to lure Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12.
"There's enough time [for the scheduling alliance] before the new [media rights] contract," Wefald told CBS Sports. "[Big 12 commissioner] Bob Bowlsby and the football coaches won't want it. So what? Coaches want to be 3-0 [in nonconference games]. Scheduling would be complicated; I agree with that."
Both conferences' primary media rights deals expire in 2025.
While the alliance would have created 30 Big 12 vs. Pac-12 games, there would have still been a gap in scheduling. The Pac-12 has two more teams than the Big 12, which has 10.
Asked whether this proposal has a chance of being implemented, one Big 12 official said, "Not at all."
"To be sure, this alliance of 22 universities from the Great Plains to the West Coast would provide the vital content of big-time football games that would dovetail nicely with the new developing platforms of the information age," Wefald wrote in the proposal.
He added: "The leaders of the College Football Playoff have stressed strength of schedule."
Wefald credited Alabama coach Nick Saban's long-time assertion that Power Five teams should play schedules completely comprised of other Power Five teams.
Wefald wrote the proposal with Dick Robertson, former president of Warner Bros. television distribution.
