The Big 12 is making ready to play a 20-game convention agenda in males’s basketball, and an 18-game ladies’s agenda, when the league loses Texas and Oklahoma however welcomes 4 additions from the Pac-12 starting subsequent season.
The arrival of Arizona, Arizona State and Utah at the side of former Big 12 member Colorado from the newest spherical of convention realignment has created new demanding situations in scheduling. The league will stretch throughout all 4 time zones, which used to be one of Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark’s objectives, however that still method some lengthy and time-consuming highway journeys.
“Scheduling and travel are a major priority for the conference,” Yormark stated Tuesday initially of two days of basketball media days at T-Mobile Center, which for the primary time will host each the boys’s and girls’s convention tournaments this season.
“For basketball, it’s looking like a 20-game schedule and 18 for women is in our future, and on the football front we’re working diligently as well,” said Yormark, whose league is losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC. “Our schedule is being guided by a few key parameters, including geography, competitive balance, historic matchups and rivalries.”
That may imply the continuation of the Territorial Cup between Arizona and Arizona State.
“We haven’t come up with any definitive decisions,” Yormark stated, (*5*)
The males are expected to play two convention basketball games greater than the ladies as a result of of the personal tastes of Big 12 coaches and the truth that the ladies’s convention match will happen per week earlier than the boys’s championship.
Yormark reiterated the Big 12 is doubling down on basketball, specifically with the arriving of hoops heavyweight Arizona subsequent season. The league intends to start out enjoying games the world over starting with the 2023-24 season, and the league is having a look into selection publicizes and streaming choices that might higher carry the sport to more youthful demographics.
When it involves streaming, Yormark stated “volume is key. Big 12 basketball and its depth provide that better than anyone.”
The Big 12 has completed atop KenPom’s convention score 8 of the previous 10 seasons, and Baylor and Kansas — the preseason No. 1 staff this season — have given the league two of the previous 3 nationwide championships.
“I said before, I think basketball is undervalued, but it goes beyond monetizing it,” said Yormark, who has previously worked for the Pistons and Nets. “No sport connects better with culture than basketball. It is also a great catalyst for international growth, and it will continue to grow and play a huge role in the future of our industry.”
In truth, Yormark so values faculty basketball as a product that he regarded as its long run in the newest of TV negotiations, which ended in a handle ESPN and Fox Sports value about $2.3 billion that is going via a minimum of the 2030-31 season.
“We gave ourselves some optionality when you think about our back-end rights, not only to renew our traditional format but to potentially break apart football from basketball,” he stated. “Our job is to explore all options and further monetize what we do, and create value for our member institutions.”
Given its center of attention on faculty basketball, it’s only herbal to invite whether or not the Big 12 would renew conversations with West Coast Conference energy Gonzaga and reigning nationwide champion UConn, which is a member of the Big East. Yormark stated previous this 12 months that the ones talks had ended partly because of the newest spherical of realignment involving the Pac 12.
Yormark declined to take questions on long run growth, however did say that “no different from last year, if an opportunity presents itself to strengthen this conference, I’m going to explore it.”
“There’s nothing imminent,” he said, “but I do explore all options that come to me, and if it creates value for membership both short- and long-term, we’re going to explore it even more.”
Yormark additionally used to be fast to shield the Big 12 because the country’s premier basketball convention after UConn trainer Dan Hurley stated on a up to date podcast that the Big East used to be “the best conference in the country and it’s not particularly close.”
“I mean, listen, history speaks for itself. The data speaks for itself,” Yormark said. “Our ratings, the tournament, where we have been the last five years — I don’t think there’s a deeper conference in America right now. Danny is a great coach, UConn is a great program, but I would certainly debate him on that.”
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