Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang shares his thoughts on Big 12 expansion
Jerome Tang has been through conference realignment before.
When he was an assistant basketball coach at Baylor, the Big 12 lost Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M to other leagues. He didn’t like that. Now that he is the head coach at Kansas State, he is about to watch Oklahoma and Texas leave for the SEC. He isn’t a fan of that either.
But good news is on the way. BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF joined the conference as new members earlier this summer. Colorado recently announced plans to return to the Big 12, and, perhaps best of all, three more Pac-12 schools (Arizona, Arizona State and Utah) appeared likely to join when Tang addressed media on Friday.
In fact, hours later, those schools were officially announced as new Big 12 members, starting in 2024-25.
Rumors of conference realignment used to cause him stress. Now they help him relax.
“It’s a whole lot better thinking about the conference growing than wondering whether you’re going to be in a conference,” Tang said on Friday, before news of the new members broke. “I was at Baylor the last time it happened and we were wondering if there was going to be a place for certain schools. We weren’t sure where we would be at. I’m sure our (K-State) fan base experienced that during that same time, too.”
Indeed K-State fans have feared the worst several times when it comes to conference affiliation.
Where would the Wildcats end up if the Big 12 ceased to exist? What would happen if they were no longer in a power conference?
Fortunately, those questions are now moot because the Pac-12 is in peril and the Big 12 has a stable future under the guidance of new commissioner Brett Yormark.
Tang’s attitude about Big 12 expansion is basically “the more the merrier.”
It sure beats the alternative.
“Right now, being part of an expanding conference, a growing conference, one of the top three conferences in the country, man, I’m like, ‘Let’s go get ‘em all,’” Tang said. “I can’t really say what I want to say because I might mess up some stuff. But I’m excited about some of the schools that are coming in and the potential of other schools to come, too.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2023 at 4:26 PM.