Big 12 programs and their fans should get ready for trips to Mexico
BYU fans may want to get their passports updated.
Per multiple reports Monday, the Big 12 Conference plans to enter into a multiyear agreement that would see football and men’s basketball teams play some conference games in Mexico, specifically in Mexico City and Monterrey, beginning as early as the winter of 2024.
Per Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellinger, Estadio BBVA, a 53,000-seat stadium near Monterrey, would be the site for football games, while conference commissioner Brett Yormark recently toured the 22,300-seat Arena CDMX in Mexico City as a potential site for basketball games.
Writes Dellinger: “The conference has had tentative plans to hold regular-season league games south of the border for months. ... The league expects to begin holding basketball games in Mexico during the 2024–25 season and football in fall of ’25.”
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There are also plans to add women’s basketball, women’s soccer and baseball games in Mexico, per CBS Sports, though the timeline for those sports is unknown at this time.
Per CBS Sports sources, the Big 12 is expected to make an official announcement on Wednesday at the conference spring meetings, which are being held this week in Scottsdale, Arizona.
CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported that Kansas and incoming Big 12 member Houston is the preferred matchup for the first Big 12 men’s basketball game held in Mexico City, but no dates or teams have officially been finalized yet.
Yormark is the one behind the effort to get the Big 12 into Mexico, and a source told Dodd, “The commissioner wants to emulate the success of pro sports teams have had. That would require an extended (multiyear) visit, not just a weekend one-off.”
