DALLAS - Bob Bowlsby is about to begin year No. 5 as commissioner of the Big 12 Conference - a league that has not had a national football champion since 2005 and a national basketball champion since 2008, a fact he brought up during his opening remarks to kick off this year’s two-day football media event at the Omni Dallas Hotel in downtown Dallas.

 

“We are all about winning championships, and we think we’ve got teams that are capable of doing that,” Bowlsby said.

 

Oklahoma was the marquee men’s program in the conference in 2015, the Sooners sending their football team to the College Football Playoff and their men’s basketball team to the Final Four. And coach Bob Stoops’ Sooners appear to be the team to beat in football this year by securing 24 out of 26 first-place votes in the preseason media poll announced last week.

 

TCU garnered the other two first-place votes to finish second, followed by Oklahoma State, coming off a 10-win season in 2015, and a wounded Baylor grid program that experienced substantial turmoil during the offseason.

 

Texas, the last Big 12 member to win a national football title in 2005, was picked fifth, followed by Texas Tech, West Virginia, Kansas State, Iowa State and Kansas to round out this year’s preseason media poll.

 

Bowlsby said Monday morning that this past year was an interesting one from a “policy development standpoint.”

 

“We adopted a new football schedule requirement that requires no more than one FCS opponent per year, at least one FBS autonomy opponent each year, or Notre Dame and two other FBS competitions - or up to two - as part of the rest of the schedule,” he said.

 

Bowlsby continued.

 

“It was clear that our nonconference schedules - some of them weren’t as strong as they needed to be so our athletic directors took the step of putting this scheduling practice into place,” he said.

 

Bowlsby also mentioned the new misconduct policy the league adopted and a new intra-conference transfer rule for non-scholarship athletes. This was in response to the situation involving standout Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, who began his college career in 2013 as a walk-on player at Texas Tech.

 

“I know this has been referred to as the ‘Baker Mayfield Rule,’ but I can tell you we dealt with it on a basis that took individuals out of the discussion,” Bowlsby said. “It would be easy to suggest that it was made because he’s the offensive player of the year now, but I think it’s the right outcome. I think he’s a terrific player, but we looked at it in the context of who might be in the pipeline that this would apply to, and there probably will be others, not likely as high-profile.”

 

Perhaps the biggest offseason development was the announced return of a Big 12 football championship game, most likely to take place at a neutral site, in 2017.

 

The league previously held a championship game from 1996-2010.

 

“Among the things I expect will happen, as I think we will probably end up playing two divisions, I think our two champions of those divisions will end up likely playing each other in a championship game, (and) I think we will definitely play the game at a neutral site. I don’t see us playing on campus and we’re going to go through an RFP process,” Bowlsby said.

 

“We will have a three-person sub group of our athletic directors that will ultimately advise the full group,” said Bowlsby, who indicated he would like to have most of the championship game questions answered by the end of November.

 

“I would like to know our site and date and we have some work to do with our TV partners, as has been reported, ESPN and FOX both have the obligation and the prerogative to host the games,” he said. “We don’t have that finalized yet but we’ve asked for a game time that’s between 11 a.m. central and 7 p.m. central kickoff times, which is the window that we have for Saturday football games.”

 

Bowlsby pointed out that 2015 was another record year for revenue distribution from the conference, league schools each receiving more than $30 million in distributable income. This was also the first year that the league’s newest members, West Virginia and TCU, received equal revenue shares.

 

“That’s going to continue to ramp up over the next eight years as our contract has designated escalator clauses in it,” Bowlsby pointed out. “And with the addition of the championship game starting in the fall of ’17, that will continue to ramp up our revenues.”

 

More Monday Media Day briefs …

 

* Bowlsby spent a good portion of his news conference on Monday addressing the offseason situation at Baylor. “(Baylor) will be meeting with our Board tomorrow and we will provide an opportunity for our Board members to ask questions and they will make a presentation,” Bowlsby said.

 

* Bowlsby also referenced the conference’s Board of Directors meeting tomorrow that will address the league’s current composition and other agenda items under review. A media teleconference has been scheduled for tomorrow afternoon with Bowlsby and Oklahoma president David Boren, chair of the Board of Directors, taking questions.

 

“All I can say is that in my four years plus in the conference, I don’t know that we’ve ever had a meeting of the Board that was more frank and forthright and transparent than the last one we had the one that was in early June,” Bowlsby said.

 

“I think that sentiment and tenor will continue tomorrow,” he added. “Our CEOs are working very well together and I really expect that this will be a positive process for us.”

 

* Regarding the five schools here in Dallas today, veteran TCU coach Gary Patterson began his news conference by immediately addressing his team’s quarterback situation.

 

“The quarterback competition will be like it was two years ago. Back then it was Trevone Boykin and Matt Joeckel,” he said. “This year it will probably be Foster Sawyer and (Texas A&M transfer) Kenny Hill, and we will judge quarterbacks like we always have - whoever makes the offense better and who can lead the team and makes less mistakes will go into it.”

 

* Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, coming off a double-digit-win season in 2015 with one of the most experienced teams returning in the Big 12, is excited about where his Cowboy program is right now.

 

“We’ve had a great summer and our players have worked really hard,” he said. “We’re really excited this year having so many home games in September; I think it will be great for our fans to be able to come watch us play at home during the month of September.”

 

The one area Gundy said he wants to see substantial improvement this fall is running the football.

 

“When you look back at the last couple of years with our running game, we didn’t do as good job of covering guys up and giving our backs an opportunity to make cuts,” he explained. “We were making too many cuts behind the line of scrimmage.”

 

* Texas Tech, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes returning, is expected to field one of the most dynamic offenses in the country in 2016. The question for the Red Raiders - and the question Kliff Kingsbury has had to continually answer since taking over the Texas Tech program - is if his defense will finally be up to par.

 

“I think if you look at who has won the Big 12 the last four, five, six years, they’ve all had a defensive coordinator in place and built some continuity at that position and that’s what we have to do,” Kingsbury said. “(Defensive coordinator David) Gibbs did a tremendous job at the University of Houston. He’s made big strides at Texas Tech and I expect us to be much improved on that side of the ball.”

 

* New Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, who won 35 of 50 games over the last three years at Toledo, said the last seven months in Ames have been a whirlwind for him and his staff.

 

He replaced Paul Rhoads, who had early success at Iowa State before struggling mightily the last couple of seasons and getting fired at the end of last year.

 

“I feel like we just got done playing a football season in a lot of ways, and anytime you take over a program there is a lot that comes with that,” Campbell admitted. “I think I’ve been able to get a head start to things and have done a lot in a short amount of time.

 

“Right or wrong, anytime change happens or occurs, it’s difficult at times,” he added. “A lot comes with that. I can tell you this: I think our team and our football players within the program have really started to buy into the change. Practice 1-15 I saw great growth among our football team and football program.”

 

* Day two tomorrow features league-favorite Oklahoma, plus Texas, Baylor, Kansas State and West Virginia.

 

Mountaineer players joining coach Dana Holgorsen at this year’s media day include quarterback Skyler Howard, center Tyler Orlosky, defensive lineman Noble Nwachukwu and free safety Dravon Askew-Henry.

 

FOX Sports and the Big 12 Digital Network will have live coverage beginning 9:30 a.m. ET.

 

We will also have coverage throughout the day on WVUsports.com.