Nick KrugThe Big 12 unveiled its 2014-15 conference schedule Thursday afternoon, and Kansas University will open league play on the road, January 7, at Baylor — four days after most of the conference’s teams begin squaring off.
Two months later, the Jayhawks will end the regular season on the road, too, at Oklahoma, on March 7.
For the first time in conference history, nearly every Big 12 conference game will be seen nationally, with all 90 league contests slated for national or regional telecast in 2014-15.
Currently, a total of 87 conference matchups (96.7 percent) will be televised on a national platform — an ESPN network, CBS Sports or the Longhorn Network. In addition, the remaining three contests are slated for FOX Regional telecasts. The schedule will also feature the first Friday night conference game in Big 12 history when Texas Tech travels to Baylor to conclude regular season play for those two squads on March 6.
The Big 12 is the only one of its peer conferences to play a full double round-robin schedule in basketball in order to determine one true champion. The league sent a nation’s-best seven teams to the NCAA Tournament a year ago and was rated as the No. 1 conference in the country in the RPI during the regular season. The Big 12 also had more top 25 teams last season than any other conference, with seven rated in the various early national top 25 polls that have already been released for the 2014-15 campaign.
Two Big 12 conference games have been selected for broadcast on CBS. Kansas at Texas will be part of the network’s schedule on January 24, followed by Baylor at KU on February 14. The Jayhawks and Longhorns will be making regular-season appearances on CBS for the 20th and 13th consecutive seasons, respectively. It is the second time in the last three campaigns that Baylor has had a regular-season contest on CBS.
This season, a number of Big 12 contests will also be carried on ESPNEWS, which will be showing more college basketball than ever before in 2014-15. Both ESPNEWS and ESPNU are available in more than 74 million households nationwide.
Eight of the 10 league squads will tip off the conference schedule on Saturday, January 3. The Big 12 will also continue its spot in ESPN’s traditional “Big Monday” lineup, beginning on January 5 when Oklahoma travels to Texas.
The televised conference games are being carried as part of a multi-year agreement with ESPN that runs through the 2024-25 season. No fewer than 100 games overall (conference and non-conference) will air annually. In men’s basketball, the Big 12 was the first conference to be guaranteed three weekly telecast windows on ESPN or ESPN2, which each reach approximately 100 million homes, respectively.
Dates, times and television listings subject to change; All times are Central.
Wednesday, January 7
Kansas at Baylor (ESPNU) – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 10
Texas Tech at Kansas (ESPNU) – 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 13
Oklahoma State at Kansas (ESPN2)
Saturday, January 17
Kansas at Iowa State (ESPN or ESPN2) – 5/8:00 p.m.
Monday, January 19
Oklahoma at Kansas (ESPN) – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 24
Kansas at Texas (CBS) – 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 28
Kansas at TCU (ESPNU) – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 31
K-State at Kansas (ESPN or ESPN2) – 1:00 p.m.
Monday, February 2
Iowa State at Kansas (ESPN) – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 7
Kansas at Oklahoma State (ESPN or ESPN2) – 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 10
Kansas at Texas Tech (ESPN2)
Saturday, February 14
Baylor at Kansas (CBS) – Noon
Monday, February 16
Kansas at West Virginia (ESPN) – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 21
TCU at Kansas (ESPN2)
Monday, February 23
Kansas at K-State (ESPN) – 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 28
Texas at Kansas (ESPN or ESPN2)
Tuesday, March 3
West Virginia at Kansas (ESPN2)
Saturday, March 7
Kansas at Oklahoma (ESPN or ESPN2)
Wednesday-Saturday, March 11-14
Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship
Sprint Center – Kansas City
