KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- If we're going to shred them for dumb, for lack of foresight, for indecisiveness, for stubbornness, for "One True Champion," then let's give credit when and where it's due, too.
Take a bow, Big 12.
Ya done good.
Or rather, ya done right.
The Power Five league that the national pundits love to kick when it's down did a very smart, very savvy thing early Thursday night -- announcing that it would keep its men's basketball tournament in downtown Kansas City through 2020, extending a contract that was due to expire after next spring.
#Big12 announces future championship sites, including #Big12MBB in KC through 2020, #Big12WBB in OKC through 2019 and #Big12BSB through '20.
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) May 28, 2015
And three cheers for common sense. The Big 12 is based in Dallas; American Airlines Center is a hell of a place. Ditto Oklahoma City, where the Chesapeake Energy Center is the jewel of Bricktown.
It's better here. Period.
Sprint Center has hosted the Big 12 men's tourney 14 times -- more than twice as often as Dallas (three) and Oklahoma City (two) combined. The Big 12 hoops, like the Big Eight before it, is a part of the tapestry here, the light that gets us through the winter; its tournament a celebration of the end of a long, cold journey to March and a cathartic holler that the madness -- and spring -- are finally upon us.
Yes, the league made the Sports Commission work for it. Yes, the Sprint Center sits on the Missouri side of the river. Yes, the University of Missouri, a former Big 12 stalwart, plies its trade in the Southeastern Conference. Sprint Center is at the heart of downtown Kansas City, the heart of a Big 12 town, a Big 12 hub for generations.
It's not about the zip code. It's about the footprint.
If you don't believe us, believe the map. A trio of the biggest, best-traveling hoops fan bases in the circuit -- Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State -- play at campuses within a three-and-a-half hour drive. In Kansas City, the Big 12 tournament becomes Phog East or Hilton South. In OKC, it's that nice building where the NBA's Thunder usually play.
The football heart of the Big 12 may lie in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, but its basketball soul plays here.
If you don't believe us, believe the math. The tournament is worth approximately $9 million annually to the local economy, and the locals turn out. From 2003-11, the men's tourney was at the Sprint Center three times, Dallas three times and Oklahoma City twice. In Texas, the event reached 89.6 percent capacity, on average. In Oklahoma, it was 88.4 percent. Kansas City? 99.6 percent.
"Kansas City," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, "has set an (exceedingly) high bar."
Damn straight. And you don't try to fix what ain't broke to begin with.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
