What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
This week, the Big 12 basketball schedule is out and the league is trying out some new gamedays, while Memphis has its eye on something bigger than the Pac-12.
LEANING INTO SUNDAY
The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball schedules were released on Thursday (I mean, finally — can’t we do this sooner). Many things stuck out to me. But one difference I noticed is that I’ll be busy on Sundays.
The women have leaned into the occasional Sunday game the past few years, usually in an effort to showcase its best teams (Baylor and Kansas State have played on Sunday). But this is the first time I can recall the men truly leaning into that day for games.
The men will play at least one Sunday game on eight of the ten weekends of the league slate. It’s necessary, in my opinion. With eight games each weekend, you run the risk of having some games lost in the shuffle on a Saturday.
The league didn’t screw around, either. The first Sunday game was Kansas’ return visit to UCF on Jan. 5, where the Knights upset the Jayhawks last season.
Several teams are doing multiple appearances. Colorado will do it three times. Arizona State, TCU, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, UCF and West Virginia will play twice.
Along with a crowded schedule, I think the new CBS deal has something to do with it. ESPN is sub-licensing 26 of its games to CBS and CBS Sports Network during basketball season. Some of those Sunday games, I think, will end up on one of those two networks.
The CBS deal is meant to give the league more exposure. It also allows the league to build a deeper relationship with CBS when the time comes for new TV deals. Part of Commissioner Brett Yormark’s plan is to uncouple the basketball TV deal from football. I still don’t know if that’s feasible, but laying the groundwork now is key.
As for the women, they will also have some Sunday games. But they’re also leaning into Friday. Baylor and TCU will host games on Friday, Jan. 17, while Arizona goes to Utah on Friday, Jan. 31. The Pac-12 leaned into Friday games during basketball and this could be a test to see if it works for the Big 12.
By the way, HCS boss Pete Mundo and I had a long conversation about hoops coverage on Friday before I headed to Manhattan for the Oklahoma State-Kansas State game. We’ve got a lot of good stuff coming.
MEMPHIS AD HAS BIG 12 HOPE?
There’s plenty I could write about realignment. The most recent is that Texas State has reportedly received an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference. ESPN broke that news a few hours before the Bobcats blew a 22-point lead to Sam Houston. The Bobcats couldn’t have timed that better.
But I’ll write about something that Memphis athletic director Ed Scott said earlier this week. Memphis was seen as a key school in recent weeks as the Pac-12 hoped the Tigers, along with three other American Athletic Conference programs, would join them.
However, Memphis, along with Tulane UTSA and USF, turned down a potential invitation and chose to stay in the AAC. Scott — who has only been on the job since July — said it wasn’t a “good deal” for his school. But then he said something very interesting about the program’s future.
“Our aspiration is to play at the highest level,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s going to be the AAC, the ACC, the Big 12 …”
Oh, is that right? The Big 12?
Memphis was one of the many schools that applied for Big 12 membership when the conference sought expansion several years ago. If you recall, the conference voted down it down, with Texas and Oklahoma leading the way.
When Texas and OU announced they were leaving, the league was more targeted and offered three AAC schools, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston, along with BYU. Then the league invited the four corners schools to join them this year.
Scott, who was formerly an deputy AD at Virginia, obviously has his eye on moving into a power conference. As I dug in doing research, Memphis is an interesting consideration for the Big 12, should it expand in the future.
The Tigers are improving their athletic programs across the board. Memphis is pouring money into the Liberty Bowl and it has a huge NIL dowry, courtesy of the founder of FedEx.
But this really caught my eye. In a story by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, he noted that the Memphis demographic area is in the Top 10 in the country in college football viewership. It’s not a top 10 media market. But that market consumes college football on television at a Top 10 level.
That is a number that Yormark could get behind.
I’M JUST GOING TO LEAVE THIS HERE
Please let me know when you intend to wear these.
I’M JUST GOING TO LEAVE THIS HERE, PART TWO
The best part? “Isn’t the beak the mouth?”
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
