In Kansas City at Big 12 basketball media days, the conference and commissioner Brett Yormark had something worth touting.
Time is Now for Big 12 to Push for More Women’s Basketball on National TV
He announced that Big 12 women’s basketball would have 20 conference games on national television for the 2025-26 season. It was the most conference games the conference had on national TV in seven years. That’s something to be excited about. It’s also a window into just how much of a struggle it’s been for the league to get more exposure for the women’s game.
Big 12 Prioritizing Women’s Basketball
Yormark has called women’s sports, specifically basketball, a priority for more exposure since he took over the league. Now, the league’s members are helping him build a case he can take to TV networks this summer for more national games. In fact, the league has a great game to tout this weekend, a ranked showdown between two of the league’s top teams.
The league shouldn’t be lagging in this regard. The fact that 20 national games is something to promote is, well, an indictment of the previous leadership. It also signals that TV partners have been reticent to give the league more exposure until this season. I imagine TCU’s run last year helped. The Horned Frogs reached the Elite Eight for the first time and the league’s player of the year was one of the game’s biggest stars, Hailey Van Lith.
Moving to 20 national games meant the league’s leadership built on it to some degree. But the Big 12 should have more exposure. I asked several coaches about it at media days. TCU’s Mark Campbell was appreciative of his Horned Frogs getting seven national linear games.
“Obviously, you want as much as possible,” Campbell said.
I asked Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly about getting more exposure on national TV and his attitude was simple — win more, including national championships. The Big 12 hasn’t won one since Baylor did so in 2019. The conference could have nine teams in the NCAA Tournament this March, if ESPN’s Bracketology is any indication.
Fennelly is no stranger to local or national support. Per On3’s Talia Goodman, no women’s basketball program has better ratings on television this season, through Monday, than Iowa State.
That’s three Big 12 teams on the list, along with Oklahoma State and Baylor. The only conference with more team on the list is the Big Ten. The interesting part is that these numbers don’t include ratings for ESPN+ or any of the three conference-specific linear networks. The Big 12 is the only league that doesn’t have one, but it’s not handicapping them this season.
A Big 12 Network?!
But, as Baylor coach Nicki Collen told me in Kansas City in October, “You’d have to explain to me why that’s [a Big 12 network] a bad idea.”
But if we’re not counting the conference networks as national games, here is how the Big 12 stacks up with the other power leagues for the remainder of the season:
ACC: 15
Big 12: 13
Big Ten: 11 (10 other games are on Peacock, which could be on NBC Sports Network)
Big East: 12 (additional games on Peacock, which could be on NBC Sports Network)
SEC: 11
So, the Big 12 is in the conversation. But how does Yormark leverage this year to pull ahead of the ACC?
Right now, the women’s national games are only on ESPN and Fox. That’s a result of the current television deal. But the men have access to five networks, the others being TNT, NBC Sports Network/Peacock and CBS. What’s to stop him from suggesting to ESPN, which is broadcasting the majority of Big 12 women’s games on ESPN+, to consider sublicensing to those networks?
That’s the next play for the conference — to get the women more access. The quality of play is there. The ratings are there. It’s past time for the Big 12 to lean in and demand more for women’s basketball.
