The Big 12 opens the 2015 season with two of the top four nationally-ranked teams in preseason polls. Seventy percent of Conference squads are ranked or received votes.

14 of the Big 12’s 30 non-conference games will be against teams that played in 2014 bowl games, with eight of those teams picking up bowl wins. A total of 16 games are against teams that played in postseason and 21 vs. opponents that finished .500 or better.

The Big 12 will no longer recognize football co-champions. In the event of a two-way tie, the head-to-head result among the tied teams will be used to declare the champion. A tiebreak procedure has also been implemented to identify the Conference champion if there is a first-place tie involving more than two teams.

The Big 12 Concussion Diagnosis and Management Policy gives medical practitioners unchallengeable authority on return to play and return to learn decisions. Additionally, the Conference limits in-season full-contact opportunities to no more than two per week per student-athlete, including game-day.

Parity is evident in the Big 12. Over the last six seasons, the league has had six different teams – over half of its membership – win or share the conference title (Baylor, K-State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and TCU). No other peer conference has had as many different conference champions since 2009.

How difficult is the Big 12’s scheduling model in which each team plays every other conference opponent? The Big 12 has not had an undefeated Conference champion since beginning round-robin play in 2011.

Four Big 12 coaches are the all-time winningest coaches at their institution -- Bill Snyder (K-State), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State) and Gary Patterson (TCU).

Seventy percent of Big 12 teams went bowling in 2014 with two playing in College Football Playoff New Year’s bowls. The Conference has had at least seven bowl teams in 15 of the last 17 seasons.

The Big 12 has seven guaranteed bowl spots in 2015 - Sugar (vs. SEC), Alamo (vs. Pac-12), Russell Athletic (vs. ACC), Texas (vs. SEC), Liberty (vs. SEC), Cactus (vs. Pac-12) and Heart of Dallas (vs. C-USA).

In the event the Big 12 champion is selected for a CFP semifinal, the second-place finisher would be the Sugar Bowl representative. If there is a tie for second place, the Big 12 tiebreaker procedure would be used to break the tie to determine the Sugar Bowl representative (if the champion is selected to a CFP semifinal).