photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark addresses the media during the NCAA college Big 12 women's basketball media day, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. — The Kansas men’s basketball schedule is filled to the brim this season.

After the Jayhawks play West Virginia on New Year’s Eve to open league competition, they will not have a period of more than four days without a game until, depending on seeding, either the Big 12 tournament or potentially as long as the NCAA Tournament in late March.

That is a departure from last season, when KU both started Big 12 play nearly a week later and had a week off in late February. The change is a direct result of the debut of the Big 12’s 20-game conference schedule for men’s basketball, which in turn stems from the league’s expansion to 16 teams.

A year ago at Big 12 basketball media days, Commissioner Brett Yormark revealed this plan. On Tuesday, at the 2024-25 iteration of the event and with the plan put in place for the upcoming season, Yormark suggested it might be malleable in years ahead.

“We’re going to see how it goes this year,” he said. “I don’t think it’s set in stone. We’ll evaluate it with our coaches during the season, and obviously following the season, and we’ll make a determination at that point in time if this is something we want to stick to.”

The comments are notable in a KU context because of the firm opposition that KU head coach Bill Self had articulated to the 20-game plan prior to the official unveiling of the 2024-25 slate. At the team banquet in April, he said flatly, “We don’t want that.” He said it would infringe on the Jayhawks’ potential nonconference commitments, with the number of games they already have set on their schedule in a given year.

“Your schedule’s basically done and you don’t even think about a buy game or anything,” he said. He further explained that as difficult as it was for KU to get its young players acclimated to college play in 2023-24, “it would be that on steroids” with 20 conference games.

That model has of course come to fruition for the upcoming season, at the same time as the Jayhawks have built a much fuller roster with 13 scholarship players (12 of whom are expected to be healthy at the start of the season, including a pair of freshmen).

The women’s basketball conference schedule is set at 18 games currently because the Big 12 tournament begins earlier on the women’s side.