The Big 12 Conference’s bid to make its postseason basketball tournament more engaging has turned into a disaster. Brett Yormark and co. adopted an ambitious approach to attract more eyeballs, but as reality set in, the conference was forced to make a hard decision, drawing negative reactions from fans.

The conference, led by Yormark, announced that it is switching back to a traditional hardwood court through the tournament for the remaining games to give players and teams more comfort.

“After consultation with the coaches of our four semifinal teams, I have decided that to provide our student-athletes with the greatest level of comfort on a huge stage this weekend, we will transition to a hardwood court for the remainder of the tournament,” Yormark said in his recent statement. “We look forward to a great semifinals and championship game.”

The LED courts used in the tournament were already under the microscope in the initial games of the competition. Several players, including Kansas State’s Taj Manning, have expressed their dissatisfaction with these courts, calling them “slippery”. Additionally, Manning highlighted that the LED court’s graphics also caused his teammate, Khamari McGriff, to have a migraine.

According to player reviews so far, the LED courts have limited fast, offensive play to some extent. As a result, Yormark also came under the scanner for approving these courts immediately after Manning’s statement, and notably, it’s no different this time around after the conference’s decision to change the courts mid-tournament.

Brett Yormark Is in the Firing Line Amid the Big 12’s Inconsistent Stance

“If you start something, man, you have to finish it. This is why the Big 12 will never be serious,” wrote a fan.”Just play the damn thing on an aircraft carrier,” added another.

Many fans, including these, haven’t been too pleased with the Big 12 front office’s consistent changes to its plans.

Kansas Jayhawks senior Tre White, who will be one of the players competing in the semifinals against Houston, also hinted that frequent changes in surface might disrupt the flow of play. “I think you should just keep it, keep it the same, just because teams have been trying to practice with that and get our minds right,” White said. “I’d be OK with keeping it just because we already played our first game. If it wasn’t our first game, I’d say switch it.”

“Perhaps we can agree that, every once in a while, marketing isn’t the most important thing. The basketball game is the product, stop trying to make it a video game,” commented a fan.

“He (Brett Yormark) has to lose his job over this, right? Just an unfathomable decision to run a “test court” for a postseason tournament chimed in another.

It seems that Yormark and the Big 12’s decision to use LED courts to enhance the fan experience was one they shouldn’t have made in the first place. It’s true that, with FIBA’s authorization, these courts are legal and have been in use in major events, including the 2024 NBA All-Star Week. Additionally, the court’s use in the context of the game, showcasing statistics, charts, and graphics, was an appealing reason to use these courts.

But replicating it in an important tournament like the Big 12 Championships, which can determine team seedings, wasn’t necessary at all, according to the fans. Initially, the players had to adapt to the lower traction of the court for the tournament, and undoing that adaptation has left the community frustrated, as these comments perfectly reflect.

“Trashy waste of money,” summed up a netizen. The financial loss is another by-product of using LED courts for the tournament. According to reports, the conference spent around $185,000 for the court’s lease from a Swiss company.

Now, with the shift back to a hardwood surface, the investment has gone down the drain. In a broader context, it might not even bother Brett Yormark. The Big 12 is quite a profitable conference, with reports of it distributing over $500M to the member schools last year.

Yet despite that, the wastage of that amount could have been clearly avoided if the conference hadn’t just decided to fix things that weren’t broken.

The fast-paced action will be back in the upcoming games of the tournament. The semifinals will take place on March 13, with Iowa State and Arizona facing off in the first game, followed by Kansas and Houston in the second.

While the tournament will finish on a familiar surface, the questions surrounding the Big 12’s decision-making process will linger long after a champion is crowned.