25 years later, Big 12 name still survives

Holding Big 12 logos, the Sooners celebrate their 2019 conference football championship. (Photo by Bryan Terry)Twenty-five years ago this week, the school presidents from a dozen universities officially adopted a name for a kind-of new conference.

The Big 12.

The name sounded fine. Had the same stateliness as, say, the Big Ten. Big is a strong word. Short, powerful. Twelve is a good word. One syllable. For all its many problems, one thing you can say about the Big 12. Its name is never abbreviated.

The name played to history. Two thirds of the original Big 12 came from the Big Eight. The Big 12 was a nod that despite all the clamor that this was a new conference, separate and distinct from the…