With expansion, Big 12 survives and so do the basketball tournaments in Kansas City
Formal invitations for membership to the Big 12 were approved by the league and delivered to Houston, Central Florida, Brigham Young and Cincinnati on Friday.
Kansas City should breath a sigh of relief.
The men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are set to continue their run at T-Mobile Center and Municipal Auditorium, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Friday. The events are scheduled there through 2025.
“We have a commitment to be in Kansas City through 2025,” Bowlsby said. “Kansas City runs an absolutely outstanding tournament. I think it is the best college basketball tournament in the United States.”
The tournaments were part of the swirl of uncertainty after Oklahoma and Texas announced last month they were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.
Would the remaining Big 12 members also leave for other conferences, continue as eight or expand? At stake for Kansas City was a basketball event that historically generated about $15 million in economic value for the area mostly at downtown hotels, restaurants and bars.
Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State fans have been the biggest drivers of attendance and atmosphere for the men’s tournament that frequently plays to capacity crowds in the 19,000-seat building.
The event hasn’t seen those crowds since 2019. Two years ago, the Big 12 men’s tournament had completed its first day before becoming one of the many sporting events canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last March, the tournaments were conducted at only 20% capacity. The women’s tournament had returned to Kansas City and played at Municipal Auditorium.
Details about the timing of expansion remain unanswered. Bowlsby said BYU will enter the league in the fall of 2023, and while the other three could join that school year as well, Houston, Cincinnati and UCF will join no later than July 2024.
Oklahoma and Texas might not leave for the SEC until after 2025, meaning there could be 14 Big 12 teams before the league reverts to its original number of schools.
But a 12-team basketball tournament would return the event to its roots. From the first Big 12 men’s tournament in 1997 through 2011 the tournament operated with 12 teams, with four games on each of the first two days, building to the semifinals and championship contest.
The Big 12 became a 10-team league the next year and the tournaments have operated that way since then.
Three of the four men’s teams among the newcomers have or will soon play at T-Mobile Center. BYU reached the championship game of the 2013 Hall of Fame Classic before falling to Wichita State.
Houston played in the 2019 NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal, and Cincinnati is scheduled to play in this year’s Hall of Fame Classic in November. Kansas State, Illinois and Arkansas are the others in the field.
“I think a very good basketball league will get even better,” Bowlsby said.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 10:33 AM.