The Big 12 Conference baseball tournament (sometimes known simply as the Big 12 tournament) is the conference championship tournament in baseball for the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the

NCAA Division I baseball tournament The NCAA Division I Baseball Championship is held each year from May through June and features 64 college baseball teams in the United States, culminating in the eight-team Men's College World Series (MCWS) at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Oma ...

. The format has changed multiple times since the inaugural tournament was held in 1997. Conference realignment saw the Big 12 expand to 14 teams for 2025, The 2025 tournament will be a

Single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

with the top 12 teams in the final regular season standings qualifying for tournament. The top four teams in final regular season standings will receive byes into the second round.

History

The Big 12 tournament was first played in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

All Sports Stadium All Sports Stadium was a stadium located at the State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It had a capacity of 15,000 people and opened in 1961. It was named for the All-Sports Association, a nonprofit charged to recruit amateur and collegiat ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, before moving to

Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark opened in 1998 in downtown Oklahoma City's Bricktown Entertainment District, replacing All Sports Stadium. It is the home of the Oklahoma City Comets, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League B ...

the following year. The tournament has been played in Oklahoma City each year, save for 2002 and 2004, when the event was played in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

, at the

home park Home Park is a football stadium in the area of Milehouse, Plymouth, Devon, England. With a capacity of 17,900, the ground has been the home of Plymouth Argyle Football Club since 1903, and was also used between 1900 and 1903 by Argyle Athlet ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

's Texas Rangers. Over its 10-plus year history, the tournament has had three distinct formats. beginning with the 2022 Big 12 Conference baseball tournament, the tournament moved to

Globe Life Field Globe Life Field is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers. It is located just south of the Rangers' former home ballpark, Globe ...

in Arlington, Texas

1997–98

' In 1997 and 1998, the top six teams were invited to play in a double elimination tournament with no byes for any teams. The format mirrored the regional round of the NCAA tournament at that time.

1999–2005

' Beginning in 1999, the tournament expanded to eight teams and followed the format of the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

. It consisted of two 4-team

double-elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimin ...

brackets, with the winners facing off in a final championship game. The format mirrors that of the tournament format used by the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

, which continues to use this bracket.

2006–2010

' In 2006 the tournament moved to a round-robin format. In this format, two pools of four teams play each other with the winners of each pool playing a one-game championship match. This format ended in 2010.

2011–2023

Starting with the 2011 Big 12 Conference baseball tournament, the tournament went back to the format used from 1999 to 2005. In 2021, the format changed for only that season to include a single-elimination play-in game with the 8th and 9th place teams before reverting back to the 8-team format for the following two years.

2024

Conference realignment saw the Big 12 expand to 13 teams for

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, the tournament expanded to a 10-team modified double-elimination format, with the first and second place teams receiving a first round bye.

2025

Conference realignment saw the Big 12 expand to 14 teams for

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

, the tournament expanded to a 12-team single-elimination format, with the top four place teams receiving a first round bye.

Champions

By school

(As of the start of the 2025 tournament) *''Italics'' indicate that the program no longer sponsors baseball in the Big 12. *Big 12 member Colorado does not sponsor baseball after 1980

Former Big 12 school

*''Italics'' indicate that the program no longer sponsors baseball in the Big 12.

Records

Team batting Team fielding Team pitching Individual batting Individual fielding Individual pitching

References

2007 Big 12 Tournament media guide

External links

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