ESPN GameDay Skips Big 12 For First Time Ever

College GameDay is headed to the Big 10 Championship in Indianapolis this week. Why is that notable? Because for the first time ever GameDay is not attending a Big 12 game. It had several opportunities — most notably OU vs. West Virginia last week — but passed them up (in WVU’s case for Western Michigan!)

Here are all the games it attended in 2016.

• September 3: Wisconsin vs. #5 LSU in Green Bay, Wisconsin
• September 10: Virginia Tech vs. #17 Tennessee (Battle at Bristol) in Bristol
• September 17: #2 Florida State at #10 Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky
• September 24: #19 Florida at #14 Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee
• October 1: #3 Louisville at #5 Clemson in Clemson, South Carolina
• October 8: #9 Tennessee at #8 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas
• October 15: #2 Ohio State at #8 Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin
• October 22: #6 Texas A&M at #1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• October 29: #4 Washington at #17 Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah
• November 5: #1 Alabama at #15 LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• November 12: USC at #4 Washington in Seattle, Washington
• November 19: Buffalo at #14 Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Michigan
• November 26: #3 Michigan at #2 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio
• December 3: #8 Penn State vs. #6 Wisconsin (Big Ten Championship) in Indianapolis, Indiana
• December 10: Army vs. Navy in Baltimore, Maryland

This is not really that big of a deal of course except that I think it plays in to how people (including those on the CFB Playoff committee) view the conference. It has become perceived nationally as unimportant or even downright terrible. What GameDay brings is some cachet. When GameDay shows up to your campus, you know that game on that day in the conference means something.

This year, as the postseason playoff narrative is about to teach us, the Big 12 did not mean much. That’s unfortunate. It’s also unfortunate that ESPN is bailing on a great on-campus early December game for the glitz and glamour (if you can call it that) of the Big 10 title which is not on a college campus. Is this what we want GameDay to be?!

See you in Indianapolis for the @bigten Championship! pic.twitter.com/cEVRQTzh1i

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 27, 2016

Look, I don’t think ESPN set out to have some sort of agenda against the Big 12 this year. I think it was the perfect storm of not that many marquee games, no Big 12 teams in the top five since OU lost to Ohio State and several other emerging national storylines. The Big 12, whether in reality or perception only, remains a step behind the four other major conferences. We have seen it all year in the rankings, through the media and, gulp, on the football field.