NCAA votes to allow Big 12 to hold a football title game

Published Jan. 13, 2016 6:03 p.m. ET

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SAN ANTONIO (AP) The Big 12 will be allowed to hold a football championship game in the future if it wants to under a rule change approved at the NCAA's annual convention.

The change scraps the requirement that leagues have 12 members and play in two divisions in order to hold a title game. The new rule lets a smaller league play a title game pitting its top two teams, provided it plays a round-robin regular season schedule as the Big 12 does now.

The vote by the NCAA Division I Council passed 7-2 on Wednesday. The Atlantic Coast Conference and the American Athletic Conference voted against it and the Pac-12 didn't vote.

The 10-member Big 12 is the only major conference that doesn't play a football title game.