Possible attendance issues. Most of the Pac-12 championships are in Los Angeles, but the conference is incredibly spread out. The most central location would be the bay area, which is as long a potential trip from Pullman or Tucson as Gainesville to Fayetteville. Even longer from Boulder. So to guarantee max gates without having to pay for seat fillers like the Big Ten, they decided to award the Pac-12 title game to the highest seeded team in any given situation.