The Big 12 is weighing a return to the 20-game conference schedule next season, and not everyone’s on board with the idea.
The jump down from 20 to 18 games has already won the favor of coaches like Tommy Lloyd at Arizona. It’s become a flexible part of his scheduling process, and an opportunity to entertain non-conference events and NIL opportunities for his players.
The league hasn’t finalized anything, but a possible 20-game expansion was tabled during its annual spring business meetings, according to reporting by The Arizona Republic. Two additional conference games gives the Big 12 more content for its existing media rights deal, which expires in 2031.
“It’s really the ability to schedule three more conference opportunities, maybe taking the big swings,” Lloyd said.
“I think that has helped the profile of our program, and it really helps college basketball in the November and December months when we’re still battling football, NFL. The quality of those games really matters. I’m a strong proponent for the 18-game schedule, but I don’t know if I get a vote on the issue.”
This is about as modern of an issue as you can have: television versus the schedule.
It’s part of a coach’s responsibility nowadays to create those opportunities, whether it be NIL or national exposure through a neutral-site event like Player’s Era. Extra conference games, as West Virginia coach Ross Hodge argues in the above article, provides everybody a chance to offset some losses over the course of the season.
Brett Yormark and the Big 12 have been assertive with its desire to expand the league’s media footprint, and if adding two college basketball games to its conference schedule moves the margins, they’ll do it.
