Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark emphasizes expanding basketball viewership of his league.
- The new court design, despite mixed reviews, aims to modernize and attract attention.
- Kansas City benefits economically from hosting Big 12 tournaments, projecting $33.7 million impact.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark continues to be bullish on his league's basketball, and that means putting conference teams in front of as many eyeballs as possible on ESPN and FOX (and soon to be CBS and TNT).
It's a strategy that puts all eyes on the Big 12 this time of year, including the conference tournament at the T-Mobile Center. And those eyes — certainly during last week's women's tournament — were on the conference's new court, both for good and ill.
Exactly as Yormark intended.
"That court isn't about me; it's about our student-athletes," he said Tuesday in a press conference opening the men's basketball tournament. "When I first got here, we were all about modernizing and contemporizing our brand, connecting to culture, and getting on the consciousness of current student-athletes. That's what we're doing."
The new court is a dull gray and brown with Roman numeral "12" — or XII — scattered throughout in every part but a black-paint key and midcourt logos for Phillips 66 gasoline, the tournament's title sponsor.
Some have called the court an "eyesore," and others compared the look to a Louis Vuitton purse, with the "XII" pattern spread across the court creating a design similar to the high-end designer handbags.
But every athlete with whom Yormark spoke last week called the court "fantastic," he said, in addition to the Iowa State men's team as they practiced before the early games Tuesday morning.
"I think it's aspirational," Yormark added. "That's our stage, and we wanted to make a profound statement. I think we did, and I love it. In life, you never get it perfectly correct, but I think the people that matter most that are weighing in really love it, and that's what matters most to me."
The third-year conference commissioner wants more eyes on his league, and for good reason. At a time when name, image and likeness, and the anticipated revenue sharing via the House settlement is encroaching on college athletics, more eyeballs mean more advertisers and more cash.
Kansas City projects an estimated economic impact of $33.7 million for hosting the Big 12 men's and women's tournaments, and bringing four more teams and fan bases to the City of Fountains won't hurt that number, said KC Sports Commission president and CEO Kathy Nelson.
"The additions of those four schools mean that new visitors are coming to Kansas City," said Nelson, whose city will host the tournament through 2031 after an extension announced last year with the conference, "and it's an opportunity to show our city even more."
That means at least six more years of traveling toward the heart of America instead of Las Vegas, where the Big Ten will play in 2028, for fans of Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado and Utah. If that's a tough acclimation, Yormark understands. But he also offers a solution.
"They've been in Vegas for a long time," he said. "They like Vegas, and Vegas was great to them. But come here, sample it, and give me your feedback."
He added that he extended the same invitation to the same four schools' women's basketball teams last week. And the result?
"Across the board, they've loved it," he said. "They thought it was first class, an experience unlike any other, and I expect the same from the men's team. … I think they're going to love it here for all the right reasons, the same reasons I fell in love with KC."
Kansas City's sports properties are growing. In addition to the NFL's Chiefs and Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City, the city also hosts the first women's professional sports stadium at CPKC Stadium, home of the NWSL's Kansas City Current.
It will also host six matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and is submitting a bid to host the Rugby World Cup when it comes to the United States in 2031.
In many ways, the Big 12 — which has been Missouri city since 2010 — helped launch each ambition.
It hasn't been the same, though. Changes to conference membership have led to revisions like the implementation of a double-bye system that favors the bracket's top-four seeds — including BYU, which opens in Thursday's quarterfinals against the winner of No. 5 Iowa State and No. 13 Cincinnati (10:30 a.m. MDT, ESPN or ESPN2).
The formula for determining those double byes based off regular-season play may change a bit more next year, too, when league vice president for basketball Brian Thornton said he anticipates moving to an 18-game conference schedule from the league's current 20-game slate.
The schedule, which would likely mirror the 18 games played by women's teams in 2024-25, would allow each team to have a bye during the conference season.
"Obviously, it's extremely important to us that we have quality nonconference games before Christmas," added Thornton, who was formerly the commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, "and that's something that we'll continue to have conversations with our schools to invest in."
