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Baylor Football has 9 conference championships in its 120 seasons, tying the Bears for the 75th most conference championships in college football according to Winsipedia. Out of the 131 qualifying teams, Eastern Michigan, Louisiana, Louisville, Miami (FL), Michigan State and Tulane join Baylor with 9 conference titles.
Oklahoma leads all teams with 50 championships, followed by Nebraska with 48 and Michigan with 39. Other Big 12 teams come in at:
Only Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and technically TCU have won the Big 12 though. Outside of Oklahoma State and TCU, those teams have also all claimed multiple Big 12 titles.
The rest of Baylor’s conference championships come from the Southwest Conference. The Bears won the SWC in 1915, 1922, 1924, 1974, 1980, and 1994.
1915 was a shared title with Oklahoma as both teams went 3-0 in conference and did not play each other. The Bears went 7-1 that year with Sewanee being the only loss.
The 1922 Bears went 8-3 with a perfect 5-0 record in the SWC. Similarly, Baylor went 4-0-1 during their title-winning 1924 run. That team finished 7-2-1 overall.
After 50 years, the green and gold finally climbed back to the mountain top, beating Texas and Texas A&M by one game for the 1974 SWC title.
Topping that, the 1980 Bears went a perfect 8-0 in the SWC, were ranked as high as No. 6 before the Cotton Bowl, and they shut out Texas 16-0 in Waco.
The last of Baylor’s SWC titles came in 1994 when Texas A&M was ineligible for the conference championship due to NCAA sanctions. The title was split between five teams all tied with 4-3 conference records. Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texas Tech and TCU were all declared co-champions.
When it comes to the three Big 12 titles for the Bears, I’m sure I hardly need to remind fans of the 11-2 2013 and the 2014 teams led by Bryce Petty and many other stellar players. Sadly, the conference decided to split that 2014 title.
I digress. The Bears are now the defending Big 12 champions after a stellar 2021 season under Dave Aranda. Perhaps the Bears can break into the ranks of double-digit conference champions this December. For now though, the Bears remain tied for 75th nationally with 9 conference titles.
