FOX Announces Big 12 Championship Game Will be 11:30 a.m. Kickoff

The 2017 Big 12 championship game, the first since conference realignment saw Nebraska and Colorado leave the conference in 2010, will be an early morning kickoff on FOX it was announced on Tuesday.

Not exactly the way Bob Bowlsby and members of the Big 12 board drew it up when they voted to reinstate the title game last summer.

The 11:30 a.m. kick from AT&T Stadium set for Dec. 2 will air on FOX and will run before the Big Ten title game on the same channel.

https://twitter.com/chrislezotte/status/910236581507846145

Although a Big 12 title game would have been semi-redundant in recent years with the strength of the conference lying in OSU-OU — a game played typically last in the conference slate — the hope in reinstating the game was to provide a 13th data point. With Bedlam now being played in early November, it could set up for a juicy rematch on Dec. 2 between the Oklahoma schools if both teams experience the season many are projecting.

Oh, and of course, money also played a major factor.

By bringing the championship game back, the conference expects to bring in $27-28 million more in revenue on an annual basis, per Dennis Dodd. This comes on the heels of a year when the conference saw 20 percent growth in revenue to $304 million, which was distributed evenly among the 10 programs and puts the Big 12 third nationally behind the SEC and Big Ten. [CBS Sports]