Big 12 men's basketball decision to drop to 18 conference games goes beyond injury prevention

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Another college basketball season in the books means another offseason to reset, recruit and reassess the growing needs of the game.
Following a yearlong experiment with a 20-game conference schedule, the Big 12 announced its intention to return to 18 games for the upcoming season.
Vice President of Big 12 Men's Basketball Brian Thornton said Wednesday there were multiple reasons for the change.
'The schedule got very compressed and when you're planning in a league as challenging as ours, understandably our coaches wanted a little bit of an opportunity during the course of conference play to take a deep breath, and going to 18 games allows that,' Thornton told The Associated Press at the Big 12 spring meetings. 'It allows us to have a built-in bye, and it's something that we feel is important for the time being.'
The transition to 18 games accommodates the requests of college coaches after complaints during the season. But the reason behind the shift goes beyond rest time and injury prevention.
'We want to maximize bids, we want to maximize seeds,' Thornton said. 'The nonconference schedule is a huge component of that. We're moving from 20 conference games to 18 conference games, and so we spent considerable time talking about the importance of replacing those games with quality games that allows our conference to continue to thrive.'
The Atlantic Coast Conference made the same move in early May after earning just four NCAA Tournament bids, its lowest total since 2013.
The Big 12 had seven bids in the tournament, the third-most behind the Big Ten (8) and SEC (14). Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, whose Cougars reached the national championship game, took notice.
'One of the great things but also great challenges of coaching in the Big 12 is that you've got to keep up,' Sampson said. 'It's competitive, you know. The SEC got 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament this year, we only had seven.'
Both the ACC and Big 12 hope the increased strength of schedule and strategic nonconference games lead to higher seeding, increased bids and more national attention.
'What our conference does during the nonconference schedule is really what sets the stage for how strong our conference is going to be overall,' Thornton said. 'The ball games that we schedule, the success that we have during that time, will set the stage for if we're viewed as the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 conference in the country as we go down the stretch and head into March Madness.'
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

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