Big 12 DOMINATES NCAA Tournament Field; One Big 12 Team Got Screwed

The Big 12 sent a loud message on Selection Sunday.

In this video, I break down why the NCAA Tournament committee made it clear the Big 12 is the best basketball league in the country right now, from Houston, Arizona, Iowa State, BYU, and Texas Tech earning major respect to Kansas getting the toughest draw of any Big 12 team in the bracket. I also get into why the conference is about to make serious money off its basketball product, why Brett Yormark may have played this week exactly right, and why the Big 12 Tournament belongs in Kansas City, not Las Vegas.

If you care about the Big 12, March Madness, Kansas basketball, Houston basketball, Arizona basketball, Iowa State basketball, BYU basketball, Texas Tech basketball, Brett Yormark, and the future of college sports, this is for you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Well, the selection committee gives us all the proof that we need. This is the Big 12's world in college basketball. Everybody else is just living in it. Great draw for the Big 12. Great respect for the Big 12 from the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. And that goes for all but one team. There is one team that I do think got singled out with a ridiculously tough draw relative to the rest of everybody else. But I'm excited. Selection Sunday. How can you not be excited? A little bit romantic about basketball. I just got a chance to see an incredible Big 12 tournament at T Mobile Center in Kansas City this week as well, which was amazing, right? Floor and all, and I will talk about that. But it was a great display for the Big 12. Uh, I think we're entering a new era of Big 12 hoops, and I'll tackle the big debates, man. We had the floor, we had the tournament, whether or not it should stay in Kansas City. Those were the big debates in Big 12 land this week, as crazy as some of that is. So we'll chat about it all. We'll chat about it all. This is the Open for Business Big 12 podcast, where the Big 12 just means more. I am your host, John Kurtz. Thank you, everybody, for joining me tonight. Let's let's talk college hoops, huh? This is going to be a college hoops heavy show all the way through. Okay. It's selection Sunday. I felt like it deserved it. And uh, you all should be pretty pumped and excited about what's going on with the Big 12 as we get ready to watch what happens here in the Big 12 tournament. You are right, wet blanket, or in the NCAA tournament, rather. Uh, Zona Cats are looking strong indeed, man. I love that team. I'm gonna gush about them in a second. I got some fair criticism from somebody in a comment on my YouTube short, which I would encourage you to go watch, which was the game-winning shot from Jaden Bradley on, let's see, that was Friday at T-Mobile Center. Said, man, this is the first time you've ever given Arizona some love on the show. Hey, fair enough. I probably have not done enough of that this year. I mean, they are easily my favorite team to watch in the country this year. I love that Arizona team. I think they're gonna win the national championship, okay? Spoiler alert. Uh, please do like the video, subscribe to the channel as you file in. Lots of ways you can help and support me. Subscribing to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter is one of those ways. OFBnews.com. In order to do that, it's OFBnews.com. Sign up. It's totally free. We have over 6,100 Big 12 fans who are subscribed. It is straight to your inbox twice a week, totally for free. Appreciate everybody uh who does that. Also, you can submit a super chat by clicking the dollar sign below the chat box. If you want to guarantee that your question or comment makes it on the show tonight, that would be wonderful. Uh, it is also just totally free to comment, like, and subscribe. And if you are not watching live and you still want to be a part of the conversation, you can hit me up on Venmo at John Dash Kurtz-4. That is John Dash Kurtz-4 to submit a question or comment there. Okay. The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee gave us definitive proof. The Big 12's lapping the field right now in college basketball. It's the best conference in America, hands down, bar none. And I've got the proof for you. Uh, except one team did get the shaft from the selection committee in the Big 12. One team. Uh, we're gonna talk about that. In this video, I'll I'll tell you who that team is. I'll break down everyone's draw. This is, we're gonna go through the Big 12 draw here, and uh I'll tell you exactly why coming right up here, why the committee made the definitive statement. Hey, the Big 12 is America's best league. Okay, it's the Open for Business Big 12 podcast, where the Big 12 just means more. I'm your host, John Kurtz. I hope everybody enjoyed their selection Sunday and a great Big 12 tournament, man. Just a fabulous, fabulous Big 12 tournament in Kansas City this week. I enjoyed it immensely. Congratulations to the Arizona Wildcats. Speaking of praising Arizona, they were awesome, deserved champs. I don't think anybody has any doubt they were the best team in the best conference in America this year after winning the regular season title and then rolling through and winning the Big 12 tournament title. Uh in the NCAA tournament bracket, we have here Arizona's a one, Houston's a two, Iowa State's a two, KU is a four, Texas Tech is a five, BYU is a six, TCU is a nine, UCF is a ten. Eight teams get in the field. That is not the most. So I know SEC fans perhaps would come in here and say, well, the Big 12 doesn't even have the most teams in the field of any conference, John. How could it be the best league definitively? Oh, my friend, it is not just about having a bunch of decent teams. It's about what do you have at the top? And that's where I turn to for this. The Big 12 has three of the top seven teams in the NCAA tournament field. They released the seeds one through 68. Kudos to the selection committee, by the way, not just for doing that, but they're able to explain their process and reasoning on the controversial choices so much better than the football selection committee. It is night and day. But out of the top seven, the Big 12 had three of the top seven seeds in the tournament. No other conference had more than one. I'm going to say that again. The Big 12 had three of the top seven. No other conference had more than one. All right. National champion contenders are what make a conference strong. Yes, it is nice to have depth, but having teams that can win it all are what makes a conference strong. The SEC dominates the scene or did for like two decades in college football because they had like four or five teams that were just trading the national championship every single year. You know, Florida at one point, but LSU, Alabama, Georgia, they're just coming up every single year, winning the national championship, and Alabama, like just trading it off between them, right? That's what makes a dominant great conference. The Big 12 has three of the top seven, four of the top 15, five of the top 19, six of the top 24. If you're just going through their seed list of one through 24. I thought this was great. Tony Cariti pointed this out, who's the play-by-play voice at West Virginia, and an excellent one at that. He said he pointed out that Iowa State is a two-seed in the NCAA tournament. They were the number five seed in the Big 12 conference tournament. Okay. Number two seed in the NCAA tournament, they were a five seed in the Big 12 tournament. BYU is a six seed in the NCAA tournament. BYU was a 10 seed in the Big 12 conference tournament and had to play on Tuesday. Okay. They played on Tuesday of Conference Championship Week, and they wound up as a sixth seed in the NCAA tournament. If that doesn't speak to how damn good this league is, I don't know what is. Okay. And this all happened, by the way, during a season when two first team All Big 12 players, one who might have been the league player of the year, had season-ending injuries, right? Like, where would Texas Tech and BYU be had Richie Saunders and JT Toppin not gone down for the season? Might be up another seed line or two for those. You know, you could have tech as you could have like tech a three and BYU a four if that had not happened, right? Now, I'd have to go back and reverse engineer the schedule. Maybe that drops somebody else. But you get the point that I'm making here. It could have been even better. I think tech was trending for a three seed had JT Toppin not gotten hurt. So huge year for the conference, man. Huge year for the conference. And I like a lot of the draws here outside of one team. All right. There's one team that if if if I were looking at this, I'd be like, oh boy, I don't, I don't know about any of this. But let's uh let's let's take a look here. Let's take a look here. Here's your NCAA tournament bracket. Uh look at Arizona over there on the right of your screen. Okay. Arizona, I mean, Long Island, it's whatever. Villanova, Utah State. I mean, I know I think I saw that uh Coach Calhoun at Utah State was already complaining about um their seeding or or lack thereof there. He thinks that they're uh a team that should be seated higher, whatever. Uh, I think Arizona would be fine. Wisconsin or Arkansas. Yeah, I mean, Arkansas obviously has one of the absolute best players in the country. You know, you let him get going. You could be in some trouble, but I feel like Arizona's a pretty good bet there to advance uh beyond that. And then if we're gonna look down here at the bottom of the bracket, like Purdue a two, Gonzaga a three. You know, I mean, obviously they're good teams, but that's not overly scary to me if I am Arizona. I think that I think Arizona has to be pretty happy with its draw. Now you'll see within this bracket, BYU gotta love a six seed. Portland, there'll be a ton of BYU fans there. Looking at a Gonzaga BYU matchup in the second round could be just awesome. And imagine the arena, like the fans for that matchup with two fan bases that are passionate, and you know, they'll have plenty of people close by, proximity to go to that game. That'd be amazing. Okay, would love to see that. BYU's got to get past the play-in game winner, though. And that's been a tricky spot. You know, these play-in winners, they get a game under their belt. That's been one of the trends that we have seen since that became a part of the tournament. So I am leery of that for BYU, but I think in general, you got to like a potential path to uh a sweet 16 there about as much as you could based on where BYU's season uh has been here lately. So good stuff there. Okay. Good stuff there. Let's go find Houston. Okay, so this is good. Houston and Iowa State. We can look at both of their draws here uh down at the bottom of the screen. Uh Houston on the left side here. Look, Houston, Texas AM could be very fun. Uh Houston getting to the regional would be virtual home games for them, right? Being in Houston, uh, that's huge as well. So I think if you're Kelvin Sampson, that's worked out about as well as it possibly could. Look, Bucky ball is fun, but I think Houston would have the antidote for uh Bucky Ball and the offense. The Texas AM runs there. I mean, looking up the bracket here. You're in the same bracket as Florida. Now, that's the one part of this that if I'm a Houston fan and I'm thinking about trying to win the national championship, which as a team that not only is as good as they are, but came that close to winning it all last year, a potential rematch with Florida is scary. I mean, Florida's really good. They've turned it on, they're playing pretty great basketball, and we know what happened last year. But it's tough to beat a team, great team twice in a season, right? How about tough to beat a great program twice in a row in the NCAA tournament in a high-leverage game? I just made that a new saying, okay. Uh, you're welcome for that. Illinois is a three, Nebraska is a four. Like, I, you know, I think I think Houston's got to be pretty positive about that draw. I already saw, by the way, if we're looking at Iowa State's here, it's the two seed in Michigan's bracket. Michigan's uh got an injury issue, right? Speaking of teams that are a bit banged up. I already saw Jay Billis say that Iowa State's the best team in this bracket. So I think there's, I mean, the experts would certainly lead you to believe that Iowa State's in a really good uh position here. Texas Tech up there as a five. It's gonna be a popular upset pick for Akron as a 12 because Akron has a lot of NCAA tournament experience. We know about the JT Toppin injury, tech slumping a bit now. Christian Anderson then got banged up as well, right? Like people will be questioning Texas Tech's health there. Uh, but I have a stat for you, Red Raider fans. Akron this year is 0-4 against the Ken Pom top 125, not the top 25, the Ken Pom top 125. And Texas Tech is number 20. So that bodes well for the Red Raiders there. Now, Bama, I do think would be a potential buzzsaw for Texas Tech in the second round, but we shall see. We shall see. Um, I you know, if Tex Tech gets rolling, I'd love to see them get a crack at Michigan and and find out what would happen there. Uh all right, I guess I'm missing. I let's see. Yeah, I mean, look, let's just go to let's just go to this region here and talk about like Ohio State TCU. Uh it's it TCU with Duke is the one there is tough if we're thinking about a second weekend run for the Hornfrogs, just being honest, but certainly they could beat Ohio State. I just the thing that worries me here, UCF is in this bracket, by the way, too, is a 10-seed. I know a lot of people like UCLA being capable of a pretty big run here. Um, I do think that's a very difficult matchup, especially. I mean, just I don't know, uh I don't know how much I really trust UCF at this point based on how they finish the season. But look at where Kansas is here. Okay. This is not only with the number one overall seed in Duke in that bracket. So KU gets a four. I know there's a lot of thought Lenarty had him as a five. They got a four, but congratulations, you are in the Duke bracket, and then you get underseeded St. John's as a potential second-round matchup. Like St. John's just won the Big East, playing really good basketball. I was pretty surprised to see them there as a five. I think that's a tough draw. And if you get beyond that, it's not just Duke, but it's also the bracket with, I mean, you got Tom Izzo here, you got Michigan State, you got UCLA, you got UConn is the two, right? I mean, this is just this is a tough bracket for Kansas. So when I say one team got it a little more difficult here, it is the Kansas Jayhawks. They got the shaft a bit, I think, uh, in this, in this draw. Now, they have Darren Peterson, okay? We all know that. They've got Darren Peterson. You could get a Peterson v boozer matchup if Kansas advances far enough here. And if if Darren Peterson gets scorching hot, who knows what Kansas is actually capable of. But I think on paper you'd have to say it's not a great-looking draw, certainly compared to some of the other higher seeds in the Big 12. So there's some opening thoughts on the bracket. We'll have more time to digest this, right? We're all doing this on the flies. It just came out a couple of hours ago. Uh, but I do want to talk a lot more about Big 12 hoops and everything that happened this weekend, which obviously included the Big 12 tournament. But I want to hear from you as well. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, that really, really helps. But fill up the comments. If you have a super chat, you want to submit a super chat, click the dollar sign below the chat box to not only support the channel, but also make sure that your question or comment makes it on the show tonight. You can hit me up on Venmo at John-Kurtz-4 if you have a question or comment. And you're not able to get it in live, I will kick off the next show with it. So you can still be a part of the conversation here. Uh still a lot more to come about the uh the Big 12 tournament was so good, guys. I really do want to talk about it. And this week just set the Big 12 up to make a lot of money. Okay, so let's zero in on that. Nobody's really talking about the fact that last week showed why the Big 12 is going to make millions and millions of dollars. And when I say millions and millions of dollars, they will make millions of dollars to gain on the Big Ten and SEC. And Brett Yormark stated as much at his press conference on Tuesday if you were paying attention. But I guess not many people were paying attention. I have not heard this discussed much, discussed much. He called his shot, and then the Big 12 backed it up throughout the week with the way the basketball went down. Okay, so in this video, I'll tell you how Brett Yormark's gonna do this, gain a bit of ground on the SEC and Big Ten with millions of bucks, and the only possible thing that can stop it, because there is one thing. It's a pretty wild week, right? I spent three days at uh T-Mobile Center in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament. There were there were ups and downs, all right. Everyone was crushing the league for the court. I know, I'm sure you're all dying for an opinion from me on the court. I am I will say this, I defended the league from a visual standpoint, like how it looked. I know it was taking a lot of crap there. I thought in person that actually looked pretty cool. And they had graphics that would show stats at certain points in the game, like guys shooting a free throw on the other end. You would see the stats of what he's done at the free throw line. I thought that was a really nice touch. The intros looked cool. There were some genuinely cool things that came from that for the viewing experience while you're at the game. Now, admittedly, on TV, I get it doesn't translate quite as well. What I can't defend is the injuries, like the injury issues that occurred there. I mean, it, you know, I TMZ was talking about this story last week, right? It cut through the noise in a bad way. It was all over the place. It became a huge part of the conversation. And we have guys getting hurt, like Tech's already dealing with injuries, and then Christian Anderson is gonna get beat up because of the court. Like, I'm I'm not here to defend it at that point, guys. Bad call. Certainly that company needs to take some heat, but I mean the Big 12 took on the risk, right? The Big 12 took on the risk and made that decision out of nowhere. They need to take some crap for that. Okay, I I understand. But outside of that, I mean, the rest of the week, like total red carpet treatment for the league, exemplified by the fact that, I mean, guys, like Jay Billis called the Big 12 championship game. You got Dan Schulman and Jay Billis doing the Big 12 title game, which was awesome. And Jay Billis is a Duke grad who like very easily, I mean, they could send them to go do the ACC championship game, but they're like, no, the Big 12 is where we need these guys to be, right? This is the Big 12 is where we need the heavy hitters to be. There were five NBA GMs in Kansas City at some point because of the talent that you have with the conference there. You know, I turned around at one point in uh one of the post-game press conferences, I think it was Kelvin Sampson's, Danny Ainge standing behind me, like Sam Preste, Brad Stevens. It was it was hopping, man. More credential media than ever. And they were treated to the college basketball game of the year. I mean, Matt Norlander, who was one of the national guys that was there, Matt Norlander, Jeff Goodman, like some of the biggest names in college basketball media were there. Matt Norlander did call it the Big 12 game of the year. I mean, how could you not? That that is, I don't, I can't recall, and I've been to a lot of basketball games in my life, credentialed and otherwise. I can't recall being in person for a better basketball game than what I saw between Iowa State and Arizona. It was amazing. And you would not only had that, you had AJ DeBonsa putting up a 40-point game, like Jaden Bradley's performance all the way around, showing why he's the Big 12 player of the year. Obviously, that shot being the pinnacle of that against Iowa State. Like just some great hoops, man. And you got a Final Four of Kansas, Houston, Iowa State, Arizona. That was terrific, including the atmospheres of those games, like the Iowa State fans and the Arizona fans, man. Shout out to the Arizona fans who showed up there because they were rowdy. I know it's like a home court advantage for Iowa State, but the Arizona fans were rowdy. All right. So how is the Big 12 going to actually take that and turn it into money? I know you're asking me right now. Okay, John, great week. How are they going to take that and turn it into money? Well, I would just say if they're going to gain on the SEC, you can start by looking at, okay, Big 12 had three of the top seven teams. The SEC only had one of the top 13 teams in this tournament field, okay? But how do you turn that into money? Admittedly, I know that's a question that I need to answer. I'm getting to it in just a moment. Please do subscribe to the channel. Pushing toward 35k subs. We blasted past 31. Thank you to everybody who has helped me get there. Uh, Brett Yormark really said it all at his press conference on Tuesday before the tournament even began. Called a shot about making way more money and gaining some ground here. And uh, can we give him first of all, first of all, before I play you the Brett Yormark audio, can we give your mark some credit for the decision to turn back on the floor, to flip it back over to the regular court? Because yes, I understand it was a situation of his own making, and you're gonna throw the hot dog meme at me like we're all looking for the guy who did this. I understand that. But he had the cojones, and I'm that's a quote from Tommy Lloyd, Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, who busted that one out of the press conference, said Brett Yormark had the cojones uh to swap out the court after a rough first couple of days. It's actually a great sign about the odds to make millions of extra dollars to catch up in a way to the SEC in the Big Ten because your mark is not too stubborn to avoid going back on a decision that he made. That's a good sign for leadership, okay? I know there are a lot of complaints about Brett Yormark, and I know you would say, well, just don't decide that in the first place. Here's the thing. Yormark takes big swings, okay? And that's what's going to eventually pay off. One of those big swings was jumping the Pac-12 for the ESPN Fox TV deal that saved the conference, right? Another one of those big swings was the LED court. It didn't work out very well. Another one of those swings, like Big 12 Mexico, never really worked out the way that they wanted it to. Like there have been some things that have not worked. There have been some things that have, and they have worked very well. Pulling Colorado away, another one. Um, but I feel like a lot of the complaints like people out there just want your mark to like shorten up his swing and try and just hit a dribbler to the opposite field for a single. That's what the Big 12 did forever with Dan Bebe and Bob Bowlesby. It got him in. Trouble and now they're down six, right? You're in the eighth inning, you're down six. You don't need to just be swinging for dribblers, right? You gotta swing for the fences, man. Yormark swings for the fences when you do that. Sometimes you're gonna miss, sometimes you're gonna knock it out of the park. That's what this league needs right now because they're down, they're down big to the SEC in Big Ten. Okay. But it's a poorly kept secret that a part of Brett Yormark's strategy here in how he's going to close the gap is to we say decouple the meteor rights, basketball from football, but basically separate the basketball meteorites from football and sell that as a separate package, a separate entity. Okay. And in doing that, if you have the best basketball product, you theoretically can make more from that and then gain some space. And I have not heard Brett Yormark like deliberately come out and just say, like, hey, that's what we're gonna do. It's been pretty widely reported and speculated, and all of the moves he has made would certainly lead you to believe he is going to do that. But like, listen to this, man. Listen, listen to the way he talked about it on Tuesday at his uh press conference.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Firm believer, if you like me now, you're gonna love me when I become a free agent. And I go back into the marketplace in January of 30 to negotiate a new TV deal. So effectively, we're sampling right now with the peacocks of the world and the TNTs in the world, um, and the CBSs uh of the world, um, so that they can get to know us on a different level and realize that we have great content that they're gonna want on their own when we get back into the free agency market. So a little bit of just test riding with them, um, and I think it's worked out favorably this year.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

That's a man who's obviously heading towards separating these meteorites, and as he said, the smart thing is this year of all years, they start flirting with the other networks, right? This isn't just about ESPN. He starts flirting with the other networks at the same time as Big 12 basketball explodes, and they have the loaded Big Monday lineup. You've got all these NBA GMs coming to games and come into your tournament. You have the game of the year at the tournament, A.J. DeBonsa's out there dropping 40. The entire debate about who's one or two in the NBA draft centers around your conference. All that's happening right now. And this week was so emblematic and just a cherry on top of what this regular season has been already for the conference, and the odds of doing this have definitely gone up this year by the product that you have put on the floor. There's only one way that this could not matter and that this would be stopped, right? I did tell you there's one way that the Big 12 would not be able to gain ground on the Big Ten of the SEC with its basketball rights when the time comes. That one way is actually a better thing, honestly, in the end, for Big 12 schools. Because that would be if we're in a project Rudy or saving college sports world by then, and everybody's pooling media rights together. Well, then Big 12, as I've explained before, like gonna be better off anyway, right? All the schools in the Big 12 will be better off anyway under that system. And we are getting more and more momentum toward that. Now, Brett Yormark has said personally he's not for that. I think because in that world, a commissioner is not as important. Uh, but he also differentiated that's not the opinion of the Big 12. So it kind of, it's like, hey, two good situations here. Either you'll make up some ground with your basketball rights, or everybody will be pulling the rights together, and we're in a different world because we actually got some legitimate change made there. Now, if you're confused by all that, you don't know about Project Rudy, saving college sports, these organizations that want to pull media rights, the uh changing the sports broadcasting act of 1961. If you don't understand all that, you want to figure out how all this works, how that could play in, and how likely it is that this would happen, click here. That's for everybody watching the clipped version. Those of you hanging out live, I appreciate you. Just hang tight. We're gonna talk a little bit more about the Big 12 tourney in just one second. For right now, we say hello to DSalazar 6135. Thank you, my friend, for the contribution and for being here. He says, Bear down, John. This Arizona team is cut from different cloth. Uh, this is a tough Big 12 team, not a soft pack 12 team. Dude, you're not lying. That that Arizona team to me is the most intimidating team in the country. Like, just physically imposing, man. Physically imposing um all the way around. Even like, I mean, Braden Burries, I know, did not have like his best tournament. There was a point there where he was just like totally on a milk carton. But for the most part, like he's still he's a tough dude. He's a shooting guard. And it's like, man, that that dude's obviously we know about Koa Pete, but then you know, Kribos, Karchenkov, like those guys, Karchenkov has to play like small ball four a lot, and he can go down and do that. I mean, the whole the whole roster. I mean, I've Awaka, you know, Waka comes in for like 20 minutes a game, and he'll just physically lean on you and beat on you. Like, yeah, Arizona is not a soft team at all. I for my money, I know I'm biased, but for my money, they're the best team in the country. And watching them in person was a treat. So I I can't wait to watch Arizona's run this year, man. Uh, and Tommy Lloyd, I also came away, like I had not, I mean, I've heard Tommy Lloyd before, but I've never sat and listened to multiple press conferences of his before. And I really came away liking him. I like his attitude. I feel like he's got a bit of an edge to him, and um not afraid to speak his mind, certainly either. I love what Arizona's program is right now, man. I'm hoping that this is gonna be a national championship type of run uh for Arizona this year. So appreciate you, D. Salazar. Thank you for being here, my friend. Uh, okay, please like the video, subscribe to the channel. Both are free, both easy, great ways to support. I appreciate everybody who does that. Uh, John Dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo. If you are not watching live, you want to submit a question or comment there, and please do subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter, ofbnews.com, in order to do that. Another one of those hot button arguments from this week. You ready for the other one that I haven't tackled yet? Uh, the worst argument going in the Big 12 and maybe college basketball, maybe college sports right now. It's about the Big 12 tournament. People want to move the Big 12 tournament. One coach in the Big 12 wants to move the Big 12 tournament. What are we doing? I saw this debate all over the internet this week. Fans clamoring to move the Big 12 tournament to Vegas. That is. I just can't even begin to start. How awful of an idea that is. While I understand where people are coming from, it should never, ever, ever be in Vegas. And we got confirmation of that from one of the most unlikely sources, somebody who should have every motivation for that tournament to move out of Kansas City, defends it being in Kansas City. Okay. I'll give you uh I'll give you the answers on who that is in just a moment. Uh we saw the greatest game of the college hoop season on Friday night. It was between Arizona and Iowa State. 82 to 80. Elite shot making, best shot making that you will see in a college basketball game, I think, ever. That was those two teams combined to hit their last seven threes and they scored on 11 possessions in a row. Okay. They hit their last seven threes and scored on 11 possessions in a row. Obviously, the Jaden Bradley shot was incredible, but before that, you got Tamon Lipsy, who's like an average three-point shooter, stepping up and just crushing one, you know, just crushing one. Um, it was an awesome game. And then in the other semi, you've got Houston just smashing, smashing Kansas, beating Kansas by 22 in a de facto road game for them, where Kansas has the complete crowd advantage being a T-Mobile Center. And they've got the Kansas fans heading to the exits at like the eight-minute mark, the under-eight timeout in the second half. Houston and Arizona for the second straight year played for the Big 12 championship in Kansas City, right? All those Iowa State fans, all those Kansas fans, and their squad wasn't playing for the title. It's Houston and Arizona, which we're kind of in a new era of Big 12 basketball. I'm going to talk about that in just a moment. But even with that, man, just elite atmosphere being there in T Mobile Center, especially for those semifinal games, man, just as good an atmosphere as you are going to find in college basketball and certainly at a conference tournament. Like I've been to regional finals before. And the atmosphere, so every stage of the NCAA tournament up to regional finals. And like those Big 12 tournament games, especially Iowa State, Arizona, because of the way the game played out, that atmosphere is as good as anything I've experienced with that. Just how the arena was. And again, huge shout out to the Arizona fans who were bringing it and they were rowdy, even though they were outnumbered by Iowa State fans. But it Big 12 tournament record, by the way, uh attendance record for that session. Like it was great. And it was so, I just was sitting there like, people, why people want to move this to Vegas? Like sterile Las Vegas. Now I know that everything outside of the arena, well, maybe it should be more sterile in Vegas. You can catch my drift, but um shh. But a Vegas arena for the Big 12 are like every single team outside of like Arizona's further. Like, what why are we doing that? Now I get that it's closer to the four corner schools, it's closer to BYU, but man, there's a real fatal flaw. There's a real, real fatal flaw here. Okay, so Tommy Lloyd from Arizona, Arizona head coach, who I just loved up, he stepped up to the podium. Now he was asked, okay, in fairness, he was asked the question do you want to see the Big 12 tournament moved to Vegas? And he was like, Well, I mean, yeah, like of course I do. Like Tommy Lloyd pitched for it a bit, but you know, it was not anything crazy and passion, and I understand if he gets asked it, like, yeah, it's shorter travel for his team, they would have more fans there. Like, of course he would want that. And I understand where Arizona fans are coming from here. I really do. Any fan base in their position would be advocating for the Big 12 tournament to move to Las Vegas or just you know, somewhere closer, right? I'm sure they'd love it to be in Phoenix. Um, I don't begrudge you if you have that opinion. I don't think you're stupid. I understand. I someone was saying, hey, because I said, hey, if you haven't experienced it in Kansas City, please come experience it before you just really go hard on that opinion because so many people were going so hard on that. And I had someone saying, Well, look, John, it will cost my family so much more to go to Kansas City than it would to Vegas. So, like, yeah, proximity, like I get that, obviously. All right. Now, I think there's a piece of when you just joined the league two years ago, you don't really get to dictate the terms. Now, you you literally can't because they're signed on through uh into the 2030s at T Mobile Center in Kansas City. But even just practically, you can't really come in and dictate the terms, right? No matter how successful your basketball program has been here, I don't think you really get that power. Now, if we get to 2032 and you've still been dominating, then maybe we can talk about it at that point. But can't being in Kansas City is for the greater good of the conference and this tournament and making it as much of a spectacle as you possibly can, right? Like the biggest flaw to me of the Vegas argument is that we had all these people this week arguing that the LED floor was a really stupid idea. And the argument was based on, hey, the basketball's good enough. Make it about the hoops. You've got a tremendous basketball product. Don't make the story be this, don't worry about the other floofy thing over here, the floor. That's if you're saying that, you can't come back and say, hey, move the tournament to Vegas because I can go play slot machines and hang out at the aria afterwards, circa, whatever, the big sports book. That's that's not basketball. If we're making it about the basketball because this league has tangibly the best basketball that's out there, it's moving it to Vegas for the non-basketball reason. And really, I think that's the main argument for anybody who's not just talking about proximity to their team. You don't need to do that. The basketball is great, and Kansas City enhances it with the atmosphere that's there. And a big part of that, it's not just Iowa State and Kansas, it's that it's closer for 90% of the league to make it there. And Kansas City cares about it. Vegas wouldn't care about it. You're not gonna get Vegas locals going to that, but Kansas City cares about it. I walking around there, I saw so many people wearing just like Mizzou stuff, right? Missouri's in the SEC, but there's still a big contingent of Mizzou fans in Kansas City that go hang out at the Big 12 tournament because it's awesome, right? Because it's awesome. They want to see the best basketball in the country. You're not gonna get that. You're not gonna get that in Vegas. Atmospheres won't be as good. Sure, there are more entertainment options. You can go eat at Emerald's restaurant, whatever it is you want to do. I know I say that. Look, I am not a Vegas guy, okay. Full disclosure. I'm not a Vegas guy. I live in Kansas City. I grew up with the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, I love it dearly. Fully admitting my bias there, okay? And that's I will do that. I totally do, just as Arizona fans obviously have their bias too, being that this would be much, much closer to their team. But I just think objectively for the league, it is it is so much more sensical to keep the tournament in Kansas City. I mean, look, the Big 12 has tried this before. Like, I know some of the argument is like, hey, rotate it, give it a chance somewhere else. Man, the Big 12 tried that. They tried, and this was when Texas and Oklahoma were like going to Final Fours, right? In 2003, they started moving this thing to Dallas and Oklahoma City, 2003 to 2009. You're like TJ Ford, Texas days, Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma days, right? And nobody showed up. No, it was terrible in Oklahoma City and Dallas, and it never went back. They gave it one little run and they were like, nope, nope, nope, nope. We're bringing this thing back to Kansas City because Kansas City will completely and totally support it. So it belongs, it belongs in Kansas City, my friends. And Kelvin Sampson, speaking of, he was the guy. The proof here from somebody who should have every motivation to want it the heck out of Kansas City. Kelvin Sampson stood at the podium. And when he was asked, said, No, this should be in Kansas City. He said, Would I love to have it in Houston? Sure. But like this is Kansas City's. It should be here. It should stay here. He said he told Brett Yormark that. So again, a guy who is having to play Kansas in a Big 12 tournament semifinal in a de facto road game there in Kansas City is saying, Yeah, this is the place. A guy who's a college basketball legend has been around the block, has coached every kind of environment you can think of in college basketball, and he's saying, No, we should keep this thing here in Kansas City. That's the deal. That's the deal. Okay. Uh I guess we can we can revisit this conversation because look, I see this here. Where is this? You're putting too much weight on attendance. Well, first of all, I'm just I mean, okay, but like attending for the Big 12 needs money, right? Attendance helps money, but you want you want good atmospheres for games, like too much weight on attendance. Like, what do you if Arizona, if the McHale Center all of a sudden start there was like 60% attendance instead of 100% attendance, would would you say uh you're putting too much weight on attendance? No, people would be like, you need the better atmosphere, you need more people there, you need more pop to this. Like, what I mean, come on, man. Um now, if you want to say objectiveness would mean to rotate the tourney location. I I I think that's certainly a debate that we can have, but I think the debate needs to start. I mean, obviously it's gonna start when the contract's done. They have a contract with Kansas City, but the debate should wait to start in earnest until Arizona has been a part of this league for a really long time. Now they're on a good track here to make the championship game every single year and be like, hey, we're dominating this league. We should have a little bit more say here. Like, okay, we can revisit the conversation then. But for right now, it's not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. Uh, okay. Where did I go to school? I went to K-State. I went to K-State. So, you know, theoretically, it is a big, you know, it's two hours away, it's a big home court advantage, but you know, K-State's got to like put together a competent basketball team and, you know, then win some games, even when they have a competent basketball game in Kansas City, because that has been one of the banes of my existence, ladies and gentlemen. Even when K-State has had strong teams, which has happened a lot over the last 15 to 20 years, they have struggled in Kansas City. They've been better in the NCAA tournament than they have in the Big 12 tournament. Anyway, I'll get off that soapbox. But uh, hey, that wasn't the only controversial Big 12 debate this week. Click here to learn about the other heated combo that have people up in arms. That's for the people watching the clipped version of that. Those of you that are watching live, just stay around, enjoy. I appreciate you all for being here. Please like the video, subscribe to the channel. Totally free ways to support me in everything I'm doing. It is also totally free to subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com. That is OFBnews.com to get signed up there. And I appreciate everybody who does that. Okay, this conversation that we're going to end with here is pretty similar, pretty similar, my friends, to everything that was just discussed up there. It's officially a new era of Big 12 basketball. Kansas' dominance over the league is gone. And at this point, long gone. And it could get even tougher for the Jayhawks moving forward. We'll see what changes are coming. Uh, I'm going to tell you what changed here, why it's a great thing for the league that this is happening, and what change could make this an even more tricky situation for Kansas, Iowa State, and hey, all the OG Big 12 teams that have now seen the newbies come in and start running this league. Okay. So there was a time that now it's crazy that it seems long enough ago to like look back on it like, oh, there was an era where this happened. My friends, there was a time when Kansas won the Big 12 regular season title 14 years in a row. 14 straight years for Bill Self. They won at least a share of the Big 12 regular season title, and the overwhelming majority of the time they were winning that sucker outright. Okay. Obviously, Kansas was winning Big 12 tournaments mixed in there as well. It was just, I mean, it was an inevitability. Kansas was inevitable, period. Uh, they were more dominant. I mean, this was a time when Oklahoma was dominant over the Big 12 in football, but Kansas basketball was even more dominant than Oklahoma football across the Big 12, which is hard to do, right? I mean, we all know how much Oklahoma was dominating uh the Big 12 in football. And for a while it created this discussion of like, man, the Big 12 can't send anybody to the Final Four except Kansas. They're having to carry the league too much. Like, what's the is how much of the perception of this league actually hurt? That was a real conversation for a long time because Kansas was just dog walking everybody in this league year in, year out. Bill Self had it totally locked down. Now, you did eventually have some teams like Texas Tech and Baylor make title games. Things started to turn there, right? Around like 2018, 2019, 2020. But boy, oh boy, did the changes fully hit when we entered the NIL era. And I mean like the full-fledged NIL era. I realized Kansas won a national championship when NIL technically was a thing, but it was not. It was not what it is now. Okay. And with that change, there might be even more change coming soon, by the way. I'll tell you why in a moment, but please do subscribe to the video or to the channel. Pushing toward 35k subs. Appreciate all of you who have helped me get now over 31. Thank you very much. Uh, it's probably here that you'd expect me to say, well, hey, NIL change. And so now I'll be the typical K-State guy, right? Everyone can pay their players now, so that's why it's changed. Uh no, look, it's way more complicated than that. And actually, not just like more nuanced, but I think there's a much bigger factor here, and it's just it's similar to the SEC football phenomenon, right? For Kansas. This is where things start. We're gonna get to the Arizona-Houston piece of the equation, which is a massive one, but it starts with Kansas can't like develop guys for three to four years nearly as much anymore. I mean, that's what Bill Self was just making a killing doing. Yeah, they had their one and duns in there. They had the Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid year, right? You had your Ben McLamor is coming through there, but really it was more about the Frank Masons of the world. You know, your Sharon Collins, Cole Alders, guys that stuck around, guys that developed. Tyson Taylor played in a national championship game, right? Like that's what Kansas was about. And it's much harder to do that now when players can transfer and make a ton of money other places. You just can't do that, just like the SEC, Georgia, Kirby Smart can't stockpile a three deep anymore the way that he used to, because players will just leave and then go get a bag somewhere else. And so you can't do that. I mean, it it's kind of reminded me how this year, you know, some of the bigger Kansas insiders out there, some of them very publicly, have been speculating openly about Flory Badungo. Leaving after this year, right? Having a great year on a team that's a four-seed in the NCAA tournament for the 22nd time in 23 years, by the way, self with a four-seed or higher in the NCAA tournament. Crazy. But we also do need to give total, total credit here to Arizona and Houston coming in and taking the crown. Like Kansas did not give it over. Yes, they backslid a little bit. But Kansas did not just hand this thing over. It was taken, emphatically, by Arizona and Houston. And I mean, like, guys, it was jarring to be there on Friday night at Sprint Center and watch Kansas just get pummeled. I mean, just beaten down by Houston. They lose by 22. Houston held them without a field goal for 10 plus minutes at one point. Kansas shot 24% from the field. You had the crowd just filing out in mass by the under eight media timeout. Like I have seen so many Big 12 tournament games at I keep going back and forth between Sprint Center and T Mobile Center. Guys, it will always be Sprint Center to me, even though it's technically T Mobile Center now. I've seen a lot of Kansas Big 12 tournament games there. I can't remember ever seeing that, where they're they're filing out that way that early. And if so there's the Houston piece this year. If you're talking about the Arizona piece, I mean Arizona was four games ahead of Kansas in the regular season conference standings, right? I mean, this is like it's it's not close. It's pretty emphatic that Houston and Arizona are better teams and better programs right now. And as I said earlier, like Arizona is just a complete as hell basketball team, man. Those guys are total you know what kickers, just intimidating and skilled and experienced and fun. Like just I love that Arizona team so much, man. I I really do. So they have taken it by force. Like, this has not been tiptoeing in or having it thrown to you by Kansas. It has been by force, right? That Arizona and Houston have come in and taken this. So is it going to change even more soon? Like, can Kansas get back into it? And is this all good for the league? Let me answer the second question first. Is it good for the league that the Kansas dominance era is over? Yes, yes, it is. Like I said, it used to be a debate every year, and no fault of Kansas's, right? But like the debate was, hey, man, nobody else in this league can make the Final Four. Like, it's just Kansas is so dominant. That tide finally turned. And now it's just even more. You're looking around like, dude, there's Final Four contenders everywhere, and Kansas is like on the fringe of it, but there's Final Four contenders everywhere in this league. Okay. So again, I know you'll say, well, you're a K-State guy saying it's good for the league that Kansas isn't running anymore, but you needed more firepower from everybody else to be considered a great league, right? Like the Big 12 had Oklahoma as a national championship contender every year for a while. The SEC had like five national championship contending programs every year for about 20 years, and it's that's why the SEC grew the way it did and became so much better because they had multiple national championship contenders. Um that's I think it's a pretty simple equation. Like this is this is much, much better. Um there are, I mean, if you're talking about like Arizona Houston, obviously national championship contenders. Iowa State is this year, and really the last couple years, they have been. Uh, Texas Tex program. I mean, if JT Toppin were not hurt, we'd be talking about them possibly as a three-seed here, basically in the same conversation. That's a program that's been to a national championship game. I don't know what you do exactly with Baylor right now, but I mean, Baylor is still there as a program that won a national championship in the last decade. Like you, this league is in so much better shape right now than it was when Kansas was just waltzing to the title every single year. And so, in in that respect, you got to give Arizona and Houston a lot of credit. Like what Big 12 basketball is now and has turned into, so much of the credit goes to Arizona and Houston there. Some of it is Kansas slipping. And then the other question you have to ask is is this gonna change even more this offseason? Like, I, you know, I was trying to get a feel for this, the Big 12 tournament, uh, talking to people, but there's I think, you know, Kansas folks at least seem gearing up for like preparing themselves for the possibility that Bill Self could retire with health issues again this year. I mean, I don't think anybody is saying it's imminent, but certainly I get a feeling that like people are at least a little prepared for that. Now, you ask a Kansas fan how they feel about that. I mean, at this point, I think some of them would say, well, hey, if we go get Todd Golden or Dusty May or TJ Oslberger or whoever, like, we'd be in better shape. So let's let's go do it and move the program forward. Like those guys maybe could give us a better chance in this era than than Bill Self. That's certainly a risk. That's a huge risk. And then you got to go land one of those guys, but uh I could see the argument there. But either way, I mean that would be just a jarring total change of the guard if that were to happen. And I do think just when someone's had the health issues that Self has, and he had them again before that Colorado game this year, you gotta wonder a little bit. You do have to, I think, put yourself in the mode to be prepared for it, whether or not it actually happens or is likely. And then if that happens, like all bets are off on like what's gonna happen to the what's gonna happen to the Kansas part of this equation. I have no idea. I have no idea whether or not to expect that that would turn into the program takes a big jump forward or it takes an even bigger step back because you have maybe underestimated the consistency self's been able to give. I could see that going either way. I truly could. But you know what the good news is? No matter what happens with that, you're covered because Arizona's awesome, Houston's awesome, Iowa State's awesome. I I guess I did just say TJ Otselberger is a candidate for the KU job if it were to open, but like sure doesn't seem like Otzelberger's going anywhere. Uh Kelvin Sampson, I don't think he's taking another job. Now, how long is he gonna be there before handing the reins over to his son? I don't know. Hard to see Tommy Lloyd would be going anywhere, right? Like, feels like that's gonna be pretty set for a long time. Scott Drew is still a national champion, winning head coach in your league. I don't know what's going on with Baylor. Grant McCasslin, I mean, Texas Tech's gonna be able to pay him as much as anybody in the country uh to keep him there. I'm just thinking in this era where the Big 12's at right now, especially, I don't I have a hard time seeing those coaches really getting poached. So I think you're in a really, really good spot. It's been a nice change as somebody who did see the league in a position where it was just totally, totally ruled uh by one school for like two decades. Uh Big 12's Big 12's in a good spot, my friends. Really, really is. Uh, thank you all for joining me here tonight. Thanks for hanging out on this live show. Um, best of luck to all your teams in the NCAA tournament. Can't wait to watch this. I haven't seen yet like all the days and times for who's playing when, because there were fake ones going around as I was prepping for the show. So I'm gonna try and go get uh more well-versed in that. But hey, like the video, subscribe to the channel, subscribe to the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com. That's OFBnews.com uh to get subscribed there. I appreciate everybody who supports the channel. You guys are awesome. Uh, genuinely appreciate all of you a lot. John Dash Gurtz-4 on Venmo. If you have a question or comment, you want me to kick off the next show with it, you can't leave it there. Uh, but for now, I bid you ado. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday nights and uh enjoy NCAA tournament week, my friends. Cannot wait for Thursday and Friday, best days of the sports year, I would argue. Uh take care and I will talk to you soon.