With new 20-game Big 12 basketball schedule, why aren’t KU and Arizona playing twice?
On second thought, Kansas and Arizona should have been scheduled to play twice in men’s basketball.
“It wasn’t easy, when you think about the different matchups,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said on Monday. “But we have go back to the drawing board and think about that. That’s a marquee matchup as we all know, one the fans want to see.”
The Jayhawks and Wildcats, traditional national powers, are scheduled to play once, in the regular season finale on March 8 in Lawrence.
Kansas is the preseason No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll, and Arizona is No. 10. They’re among six Big 12 schools in the top 25 along with No. 4 Houston, No. 5 Iowa State, No. 8 Baylor and No. 20 Cincinnati.
The Big 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado to become a 16-team league this season and expanded the conference schedule to 20 games. Teams will meet five opponents twice.
The Kansas two-time opponents: Kansas State, Iowa State, UCF, Colorado and Houston.
Arizona: Baylor, Arizona State, Texas Tech, BYU and Iowa State.
“It’s the first time at 20,” Yormark said. “We have to figure it out, see what worked and what didn’t and address it at the end of the season.”
Yormark said a scheduling committee of athletic directors puts together the schedule and that the league’s media partners don’t have a direct influence.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 10:34 AM.