Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament remains in the Heartland for years to come

Photo by Dylan Shah // UDK

Kansas City has been the host site for the Big 12 Basketball tournament— both women’s and men’s—almost every year since the late ’90s. But this year, HERstory was made during Women’s History Month. 

For the first time in history, since KC began hosting in 1997, the Women’s Big 12 Basketball Tournament was played at the T-Mobile Center instead of the Municipal Auditorium. 

“I’ve been at Texas four years and I’ve been fighting to get this tournament in this building ever since I took the job. It is so unjust for our kids to have to be playing at Municipal for all those years, while the guys are over here,” Texas Women’s Basketball Head Coach Vic Schaefer says, prior to winning the Big 12 title. Many fans and community leaders shared their excitement for the Big 12 hosting here, and supported both the men’s and women’s tournaments throughout the week. 

Photo by Val Montanez // UDK

The Big 12, formerly the Big 8, has continued to make strides in their conference, including expansion heading into the 2024-2025 year to add schools Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, and Colorado—led by Deion Sanders.

While the University of Texas Women’s basketball team took home the Big 12 championship title, they were also selected as the number one seed in the Portland Four region and will kick off March Madness against number 16 Drexel. Including Texas, a total of seven Big 12 women’s basketball teams were selected to play for the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. 

Iowa State Men’s basketball team won the Big 12 championship title with a staggering win over Houston, for their first conference title since 2019. They also were selected as the number two seed, along with seven other Big 12 teams making the cut, for a record total of eight total teams that will play for the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

Photo by Dylan Shah // UDK

Brett Yormark, Commissioner for the Big 12 conference, mentioned how KC has played a critical role in the history of the Big 12, and also had more exciting announcements that would be coming here soon during a tournament press conference. 

“I’m thrilled to officially announce that the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball championships will stay right here at T-Mobile and in Kansas City through 2031,” Yormark says. He also mentioned that he would be attending the historic opening day of the CPKC Stadium—The home stadium for NWSL Kansas City Current, and also the first stadium in the world built specifically for a professional women’s sports team.

Photo by Val Montanez // UDK

With the opening of CPKC, Commissioner Yormark also announced that the Big 12 women’s soccer championship would be moving to Kansas City through 2025. During the press conference, the Commissioner continued to share how excited he was to “double down” on Kansas City, making it home to multiple championship sports at least through 2031. 

During the same press conference Kathy Nelson, President & CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission, was asked about professional men’s or women’s basketball teams coming to Kansas City. Her response: “We’re always working on something.” KC is surely on the rise of stepping fully into the ‘sports city’ it has been unofficially crowned as.