Keeping the Big 12 Basketball Tournament In Kansas City was the Right Call
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tuesday was a bad day for the “Let’s move the Big 12 basketball tournaments around the country” crowd.
By announcing the men’s and women’s basketball tournament extensions through 2031, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark gave his signature basketball events security for the next seven years.
It also allowed Kansas City the chance to take a deep breath and know that its place in the Big 12 pecking order is secure.
Yormark acknowledged the challenges of taking in the “Four Corners” schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah. If you’re on social media, you know that some of the west coasters new to the conference have pined for the Big 12 to move its basketball tournaments to Las Vegas.
Well, that isn’t happening. Yormark made that clear.
“When it comes to men’s and women’s basketball and women’s soccer this needed to be our home,” Yormark said. “We are going to football media day in Vegas, and there’ll be other opportunities for us to move closer to that footprint. But we needed to be here in Kansas City.”
And you will be coming to KC, Corner Four. Yormark also said that all 16 teams will participate in next year’s tournament. Arizona is already all in if the video billboard in the Power and Light District is any indication. I’m asked to get “Ready to Bear Down” three or four times a day.
I’ve covered the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City since 2019. As I looked down at the T-Mobile Center from the hockey press box, the changes are clear after just five years.
I used to sit in the premium courtside seating to cover games. The Champions Club by the press area under the arena wasn’t there five years ago. It would be hard to miss what looks like a speakeasy by the media workroom (would free adult beverages during work hours be out of line? Asking for me). Now, there’s a backcourt lounge on the baseline.
The tournament is becoming a different animal now. Yormark and his staff are building it to drive revenue and be more of a “pro” experience. That’s not a major leap for a commissioner who made his bones as the CEO of Brooklyn Sports Entertainment (the Brooklyn Nets) and the Barclays Center, and before that, helped to swing the NEXTEL deal for NASCAR as a vice president of corporate marketing, a $750 million sponsorship deal.
I asked him if there was more to come, in terms of facility improvement at T-Mobile, and while he didn’t get specific he said there is. He’s made the point for more than a year that everything he’s asked for from T-Mobile and Kansas City he’s gotten. He’s returning that by committing to the Big 12 here for seven more years.
But this is all significant change for a league like the Big 12, which, up until his arrival, was the very definition of traditional. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just different. And the league’s former approach will not work as college athletics transitions to a world of NIL, billion-dollar TV contracts, and, perhaps, athlete unionization.
The Big 12 will not catch the SEC and the Big Ten in revenue. As I’ve written in this space before, part of Yormark’s goal must be to keep this conference No. 3 and ahead of the ACC. There is power in that position.
Part of doing that is putting perhaps his best overall sport, basketball, on a pedestal for all the world to see. He has repeatedly said he sees the value of the sport as undervalued in the media rights landscape. He was insistent on Tuesday that the Big 12 have a “seat at the table” for any discussions about the NCAA Tournament. He has the best basketball conference in the country. A seat at the table should be a given.
The Big 12 right now reminds me of the Big East from the 1980s. Yes, Kansas is still the marquee school on the men’s side. But in the past half-dozen years, Baylor and Texas Tech have grown up fast, pumping money into facilities and finding success with quality coaches, including Scott Drew, who led Baylor to a national title in 2021 and who now recruits as well as Bill Self at Kansas (sorry Louisville, he ain’t coming your way).
T.J. Otzelberger has revitalized Iowa State. Jerome Tang has done the same at Kansas State. TCU is about to make its third straight NCAA Tournament, a seismic event for a school that had only been to the NCAAs seven times before its former point guard, Jamie Dixon, returned to take over the program.
The new schools were ready this year. Houston is the No. 1 team in the country and won the regular season title in its first year. BYU was a Top 25 team most of the year. Cincinnati is as tough an out as there is in the league. UCF will finish with a winning season and probably go to the NIT.
It only gets better next year, especially with Arizona, which is No. 5 in the country. The Four Corners schools will add value in basketball, and of that, there is no question.
As for the women, Iowa State isn’t going anywhere, not with that freshman class. Neither is Kansas State. I truly believe Baylor is on the verge of being dominant again under Nicki Collen. Mark Kellogg has West Virginia pointed in a great direction for the long term. Arizona, Colorado, and Utah will only make the league tougher and give it a higher profile.
What is good for the Big 12 is good for Kansas City, too. The city has immense roots in college basketball. It has hosted Final Fours and NAIA national tournaments. It loves basketball, and it loves the economic impact. Kathy Nelson of the KC Sports Commission said that the city should get a $32 million economic impact from the tournaments.
The Big 12 continues to take steps to deepen its own roots here. It’s not just the extension and the economic impact. It’s partnerships with Kansas City brands like Charlie Hustle, which has its own line of Big 12 apparel, lines for every Big 12 team, and the four new teams coming into the league.
Yormark is bringing the Big 12 Women’s Soccer Tournament to Kansas City for the next two years in part because the new CPKC Stadium is the first facility built specifically for women’s soccer.
There isn’t a better time for the Big 12 to capitalize on its basketball investment. The league is as strong as it has ever been.
And to our new West Coast friends, hey, I get it — Vegas is fun, and I’m sure our staff will enjoy Media Days for football out there in July (perhaps too much). But in March, you’re one of five tournaments out there in Vegas. Give this tournament and Kansas City a chance next March. It’s the best show in town. It’s the only show in town. No distractions. Just basketball. And barbecue.
I promise — you’ll wanna come back every year just like I do.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
