[3] The game featured the top-seeded, Oklahoma Sooners and the second-seeded, TCU Horned Frogs.

Oklahoma defeated Nebraska, 23–20, to claim their seventh Big 12 title.

The 2010–2013 realignment of the conference left the Big 12 with ten members, and NCAA regulations at the time required a conference to have at least 12 members in order to hold an "exempt" championship game that did not count against the limit of 12 regular-season contests for FBS teams.

The Big 12 thus used its regular season in-conference results to determine the conference champion.

Following a January 2016 NCAA rule change that allows FBS conferences to conduct exempt football championship games regardless of their membership numbers, the Big 12 announced that the championship game would be reinstated in 2017.