The Big Ten Conference filed a last-minute amendment in November that could prevent the Big 12 from having a conference championship game.

For the past couple years, the Big 12 has been working on a proposal that would allow conferences to determine how they want to structure their conference title games. In doing so, the Big 12, the smallest of the Power Five conferences with just 10 members, would be able to pit its top two teams in the title game and not have to add to outside schools to bring the conference membership to 12.

Current rules require conferences to have 12 teams split into two divisions. Those division winners are eligible for the conference title game.

"We don't think we ought to be forced into adding schools in order to have a championship game, but it could end up that way,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told ESPN.com.

ACC commissioner John Swofford, who agreed with the premise that conferences should decide how their conference champions are chosen, backed the proposal.

However, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was worried about an uneven playing field when it comes to choosing a conference winner.

"I agree a conference should not have to expand in order to have a championship game," Delany told ESPN.com. "That wouldn't be right. That's tail wagging dog. On the other hand, I want to have some familiarity — some knowledge as to how these things are going to play out. I don't want unintended consequences. I don't want to wake up one morning and see some odd structure that's unfamiliar.

"We don't think he should have to expand to have the same option we have," Delany said, "but we feel he should have a structure similar to ours."

The Big Ten’s amendment is calling for little change in the current structure. It wants championship games to be between two members that are divisional champions.

The Big Ten’s argument centers more around the ACCs plans with deregulation rather than the Big 12s. Delany agreed the Big 12 should be treated differently because of its smaller membership, but he was concerned what the ACC would do if it was able to just select the teams it wanted to play in its conference title game and the trickle-down effect from that decision.

"I'm sympathetic to what Bob wants to achieve, but we wanted to start the conversation and not just have one vote for total deregulation," Delany said.

The Big 12 is not eager for divisions with 10 teams and the conference membership has been resistant to expansion.

"We don't want to play two five-team divisions then have the potential of everyone else has the two best teams in one division," Bowlsby said. "We don't think we ought to be forced into that sort of thing."

The 10 FBS members on the NCAA council will hold voting on this measure at the NCAA Convention on January 13-16 in San Antonio.

Bowlsby acknowledged that the Big 12 might be forced to make some sort of change whether it likes it or not. He knows even though Oklahoma was among the top four for this year’s College Football Playoff, the lack of a conference championship dropped the Sooners from No. 3 to No. 4 and elevated No. 5 Michigan State to No. 3 because of the Big Ten title game win.

"It's a part of the discussion we're having, and we won't be making any decisions until after we know how it runs out," he said.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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