1996 Big 12 Championship Game

MVP	DeAngelo Evans (RB Nebraska)

1996 Big 12 Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
North Division
No. 6 Nebraska x%		8	–	0					11	–	2
No. 8 Colorado		7	–	1					10	–	2
No. 17 Kansas State		6	–	2					9	–	3
Missouri		3	–	5					5	–	6
Kansas		2	–	6					4	–	7
Iowa State		1	–	7					2	–	9
South Division
No. 23 Texas x$		6	–	2					8	–	5
Texas Tech		5	–	3					7	–	5
Texas A&M		4	–	4					6	–	6
Oklahoma		3	–	5					3	–	8
Oklahoma State		2	–	6					5	–	6
Baylor		1	–	7					4	–	7
Championship: Texas 37, Nebraska 27
x – Division champion/co-champions $ – Bowl Alliance representative as champion % – Bowl Alliance at-large representative Rankings from AP Poll

The 1996 Dr. Pepper Big 12 Championship Game was held on December 7, 1996 at Arrowhead Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. The divisional winners from the Big 12 Conference squared off in the 1st edition of the game. The Texas Longhorns represented the South Division and the Nebraska Cornhuskers represented the North Division. Texas won the contest 37-27 keyed by a daring 4th down conversion from their own 28 yard line with slightly more than 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter when the score was 30-27 in their favor.

Selection process

The Big 12 Championship Game matches up the winner of the North and South divisions of the Big 12 Conference. The game was first played in 1996, when the conference was assembled to include all of the teams from the Big Eight Conference as well as four teams that had formerly been members of the Southwest Conference. The championship game was modeled on the SEC format, which was the first conference in college football to have a conference championship game. Today, three additional conferences also now hold conference championship games: The ACC, C-USA and MAC.