KANSAS CITY — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark appeared at a news conference before the league’s women’s basketball championship game Tuesday night and immediately delivered some news that probably won’t please BYU fans or fans of the schools that will join the conference next year.
The men’s and women’s tournaments will remain at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center through 2031, said Yormark, flanked by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
Additionally, the Big 12 announced that the conference’s women’s soccer championships will be held in Kansas City at the new CPKC Stadium, home of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current, in 2024 and 2025. City officials said it is the first soccer stadium in the world built specifically for women’s soccer.
BYU’s women’s soccer team played in the Big 12 championship game last fall, losing to Texas in the final.
“It was a really easy decision that we needed to double down on this community for all the right reasons. You guys have embraced us. It feels like a Super Bowl each time we are here,” Yormark said, drawing applause from the back of the room.
“The fan support is tremendous, the community support is tremendous and we look forward to doubling down here in Kansas City and calling this our home for basketball championships in the future.”
It is no secret that some, if not all, of the new schools entering the league next year — Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State — would like to see the tournaments held in Las Vegas, which is hosting the Pac-12, WCC, WAC and Mountain West tournaments this week and is the epicenter of college basketball in early March.
Asked if he’s had any conversations with those schools about the tournaments staying in Kansas City, Yormark mentioned that the Big 12 football media days are in Las Vegas this summer, and that there will be “other opportunities for us to move closer to that footprint,” which he did not specify.
“Listen, we are a national conference now,” Yormark said. “We are in 10 states, four time zones, (with) 90 million people in our footprint. We have a lot of optionality out there, where we can take our championships, but when it comes to men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer, this needed to be our home.”
Later, Yormark called Kansas City “our home away from home, and we are just thrilled to be here. … Thrilled to be here through 2031, and I am sure we will be here much longer than that.”
Although T-Mobile Center is not home to a college basketball program, powerful Kansas plays in Lawrence, Kansas, less than an hour’s drive away, and KU fans have been known to take over the venue when the Jayhawks play and create a significant home crowd advantage.
Yormark said all 16 schools will be in the men’s and women’s tournaments next year, but he did not go into details regarding what the bracket configurations will look like.
Here’s more of what the third-year commissioners discussed Tuesday night:
•One of the many hot topics in college sports these days is the expansion of the College Football Playoff, and what the format will look like. Yahoo Sports reported last week that the Big Ten and SEC — the so-called Power Two — are trying to push through a new format and revenue model that favors them over the other two, the ACC and the Big 12.
Yormark said he wanted to keep Tuesday’s presser focused on basketball, but acknowledged he has had many conversations about the future of the CFP.
“I think it is fair (to say) we are making progress. We have had a lot of tough conversations, but I am looking forward to concluding those conversations and moving forward in the most appropriate fashion,” he said. “Nothing is definitive yet. It is a work in progress, and I am confident we will get there.”
•Yormark said the departures of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC this summer haven’t been all that challenging. He reiterated that the additions of Utah, Colorado and the Arizona schools will make the Big 12 better.
“As I’ve stated before, there has never been a better time to be part of this conference than right now. Our future is very bright. We are bullish on our future,” Yormark said.
“The Four Corners (schools) will be joining us. We will be a 16-team league for the first time. We have gotten stronger in football. We have gotten stronger in basketball. We have gotten stronger in Olympic sports, so life in the Big 12 has been great. It has been seamless as we have integrated and begun to integrate the Four Corners.”
•Is the Big 12 finished expanding?
Faced with that question, Yormark shrugged and said he doesn’t really know right now.
“I love the makeup and composition of this conference right now,” he said. “… Adding the Four Corners schools was the best-case scenario for us. We have a lot of work to integrate those four and transition them in the right way. Who knows what the future will hold?”
•Yormark said the Big 12′s dominance in basketball has extended over to the television ratings. He said women’s basketball viewership has seen a 100% increase and men’s basketball viewership is up 8% — the only Power Four conference “to show an increase year over year.”
The commissioner said ESPN will continue to be the home of the Big 12 basketball tournaments when the new media rights contract kicks in in the 2025-26 season.
•Yormark said he expects seven Big 12 teams will make the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and that it is the only league with every team in the top 100 of the NET rankings.
He expects nine men’s teams to make the Big Dance, and possibly 11 if things break right.
“On the men’s front, what can I say? Just another year as the best conference in basketball. We have led the nation in conference NET ranking every week this season,” he said. “We are the top conference in the KenPom, AP, whatever acronym you want to use. We are No. 1. We have the best non-conference winning percentage of any league.”