The Big 12 is reverting to the traditional 18-game conference schedule format for men’s basketball after just one year of expanding league games to 20. The scheduling change, which was expected to take effect as early as this season, received confirmation Wednesday during the conference’s annual spring meetings in Orlando.
“The schedule got very compressed, and when you’re playing in the league as challenging as ours, understandably, our coaches wanted a little bit of an opportunity during conference play to take a deep breath, and going to 18 games allows that,” Big 12 VP of Men’s Basketball Brian Thornton told the Orlando Sentinel. “It allows us to have a built-in bye, and it’s something that we feel is important for the time being.”
The Big 12 expanded its membership to 16 teams last summer with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. Big 12 teams played five opponents twice and the 10 other conference opponents once to complete the 20-game conference schedule.
Opponents were selected last year for Big 12 play based on a combination of geography, historical results and a poll of the coaches to best balance the schedule in terms of travel and competitiveness. The Big 12 stuck to the original 18-game format for women’s basketball despite four new members joining the conference.
“We’re very mindful of the wear and tear and that travel is one of our guiding principles when we think about scheduling,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said earlier this spring. “We’re making sure we’re very sensitive to that, and that will continue.”
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