The correlation is that most national champions are conference champions because teams good enough to win the national championship are good enough to win a conference tournament.
The big 12 championship game is on a Saturday night, the teams playing in it will either get 4 or 5 days rest. I'm 250 pounds and nearly 47 years old, I could climb a goddamned mountain with 4 days rest.
It's not an exhibition to us because we've barely won dick in our lifetimes, I'll be damned if I'm gonna too cool for school a trophy I've never seen us win.