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Big 12 fans must pick poison. Get used to it.
Published: 3/7/2012 1:17 PM
Last Modified: 3/7/2012 3:00 PM

The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments won’t tip off for several more hours. The first mistake of the tournament has already been made.

There are four games -- two male, two female -- on tap today. Instead of playing two games during the day and two in the evening (that would give fans a chance to watch ‘em all, if desired), all four games will be played in the evening.

OSU’s men play Texas Tech at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sprint Center. OSU’s women play Missouri at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Municipal Auditorium. If you’re an OSU fan, you have to pick which game you want to attend instead of taking in both games.

It’s a scheduling conflict that could have been avoided by perhaps playing the two women’s games earlier in the day. Would day games hurt attendance? Maybe. But attendance also will take a hit because OSU and Tech fans will have to pick their poison.

This is the last year in which the Big 12 men’s and women’s tournaments will be staged at a shared site. In the future, the women’s tournament will be held in a different city than the men’s tournament.

"There's a sense that we need to try something a little outside the box," Big 12 senior associate commissioner Dru Hancock told the Kansas City Star.

"There's not complete unanimity to move it away from the men's tournament because a lot of folks like them together. But there's a sense to try (the women's tournament) as a stand-alone entity.

Women’s basketball has made huge strides in terms of popularity and visibility in recent years, but I think the decision to make the women’s Big 12 Tournament a solo event is a premature one.

Piggy-backing the men’s and women’s tournaments at a shared site would seem to increase the odds of the gals drawing crowds. I’m not a “hater” of women’s sports. I enjoy basketball regardless of what chromosomes the players have. But it’s reality that the vast majority of men’s college squads draw bigger crowds than the women. (Just wondering: Is OU’s women’s team more popular with Sooner fans than the men’s team?)

Considering the state of the economy, I wonder how many media outlets will dispatch folks to cover Big 12 Tournaments in two different cities? The media population seems to be “down” at many non-local sporting events.

Fans and media may have to pick who they want to see -- guys? gals? -- beginning in 2013. I suppose tonight will be a test run.


Reader Comments 1 Total
204023 (12 months ago)
The Big twelve should keep the games at one site with staggered start times,i.e., one mens game and one women's game in the afternoon and one men's game and one women's game in the evening.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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