Ohio State won the 2014 national championship because the Big 12 didn't have a conference championship.
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Had Baylor and TCU — both of whom finished the regular season with an 8-1 conference record — played for the conference title, the winner would've secured the No. 4 seed in the inaugural College Football Playoff. There was no such game so both the Bears (No. 5 in the final standings) and Horned Frogs (No. 6) were left out in favor of the Buckeyes, who smashed Wisconsin the Big Ten Championship to get the No. 4 seed.
While the conference and its members were irate about their exclusion from the four-team field, they didn't add a conference championship in 2015 or 2016. They were not burned either year (Oklahoma made the field in 2015 and no team finished about seventh in the final 2016 rankings), but the Big 12 was still playing with fire, just waiting to be scorched by another year without a conference championship.
Finally the conference added the title game in 2017, and oddly it may burn them.
Oklahoma (8-1) and TCU (7-2) will play for the title on Saturday in Arlington, Texas. If the Sooners win, they're in. If the Horned Frogs win, they'd need a shockingly friendly boost from the committee to hop Alabama — or potentially Ohio State.
Without a conference championship, Oklahoma would already be Big 12 champs and been comfortably in the College Football Playoff. They'd spend the weekend watching the ACC Championship, Big Ten Championship and SEC Championship to find out who they might play in the Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.
Instead, the Sooners are forced into a conference championship with little to gain and everything to lose.
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