The Big 12 is reeling from seeing both their College Football Playoff (CFP) contenders be left out by the selection committee.

According to ESPN, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby knew precisely why his conference does not have a team in the first ever college football final four.

"It's clear that we were penalized for not having a postseason championship game. It would have been nice to have been told that ahead of time," he said in a phone interview on ESPN's CFP Selection Show on Sunday. "We have to weigh whether this is substantial enough to add institutions.

"It's certainly a major consideration."

Bowlsby said ahead of the final weekend of games that the Big 12 would honor both TCU and Baylor as co-champions if both teams won. The move was meant to increase both schools' chances at making the CFP, though it did not work. Baylor and TCU both won, but the latter fell from their third-place ranking and was replaced by Ohio State, a team that won the Big Ten title game 59-0.

"My opinion, since people are asking? I think the committee needs to be a little more regionalized with people that are associated with the south part of the United States," Baylor head football coach Art Briles told ESPN Sunday. "I'll say that. I'm not sure if there's a connection on there that is that familiar with the Big 12 Conference. To me, that's an issue."

Baylor won a head-to-head matchup against TCU, which would theoretically make them the "One True Champion," as the Big 12 slogan goes. Briles also appeared on ESPN's "Mike and Mike" radio show and said his team felt like they lost upon seeing the CFP final rankings, even though they beat ninth-ranked Kansas State are the rightful Big 12 champs.

TCU was on track to make the CFP, going into the final weekend ranked third overall. They beat up on a team they were supposed to beat up on, but still found themselves on the outside looking in.

"It's one of those things if you didn't want to be disappointed, you need to be undefeated," TCU head football coach Gary Patterson told ESPN. "It's the only way you can control your own destiny and we didn't do that."