Big 12 basketball set on 18 conference games for 2023

The scheduling format for Big 12 basketball has not been decided, and whatever is implemented for the 2023-24 season will be temporary, since the conference will lose OU and Texas in summer 2024.

But the number of conference games has been settled: 18.

OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg said a couple of weeks ago he believed 18 was where the Big 12 was leaning, and a conference source said last week that 18 indeed is the number.

"We like the number that we're playing now, pretty close to that," Weiberg said of 18, which the Big 12 went to in 2011-12, when the conference was reduced to 10 schools.

"Too far above that, and you start to have some limitations on other things you want to do. So we're looking at a number right around what we've had."

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The league is expected to protect traditional rivalries with home-and-home formats — Bedlam in 2023-24, Kansas State-Kansas going forward, likely Cincinnati-West Virginia.

What's not known is if the Big 12 will go to a rotating system or if some potentially potent matchups will be featured twice every season.

For example, Kansas-Houston, Kansas-Baylor and Baylor-Houston figure to be rousing showdowns, at least in the near future. All have reached the Final Four in the last three years.

The television networks would prefer as many of those games as possible.

Adding to the intrigue is commissioner Brett Yormark's desire to market the league in Mexico, with at least one game in Mexico City.

Some have mentioned Kansas-Houston as a potential Mexico game. But if KU and Houston are playing but once a year, would a game in Mexico City mean either the Jayhawks or Cougars could go three straight years without a home game against the other? That would not be good.

Another question: Will traditional conference rivalries be played more often? OSU-Kansas State, OSU-Kansas, Iowa State-Kansas, Baylor-Texas Tech, Texas-Christian-Tech, etc.?

Those are the kinds of decisions the Big 12 eventually must make.

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