KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Big 12 Conference is set to play 20 league games in men’s basketball this season, up from 18 last season, but as Brett Yormark talked at media days in October he left open the possibility that could change in the future.

Yormark, the Big 12’s commissioner, outlined that they’re going to see how it goes this year and that it isn’t something that is set in stone. He noted they’ll evaluate it with their coaches as the season unfolds, as well as after it ends. From there, they’ll make a determination as to whether or not they want to stick with 20 games moving forward.

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, though, doesn’t seem to need to go through the season to see what he would think about a 20-game slate. Also speaking during media days at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, he highlighted how he feels about the decision. And if there’s a group of people who want change in the future, it sounds like he’s a part of it.

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“I don’t like the 20 at all, but hopefully it’s not going to stay there,” Self said. “But I think the 20 is too much. I thought last year was too much. Maybe not too much if you don’t play a competitive non-conference schedule, but when you play the schedule we’re playing that’s the same as playing — guys, a minimum of 26 out of your 31 games are league games, basically, that you have to win, when you count the at Missouri, at Creighton, Michigan State, North Carolina, NC State, Duke.”

As Self mentioned, Kansas’ non-conference schedule for the 2024-25 season includes a pair of road games at Missouri and Creighton, a couple neutral site games against Michigan State and Duke, and a couple of home games against North Carolina and NC State. They’re all significant matchups, he explained, that carry the same value and difficulty of those his Jayhawks will play during Big 12 play. It’s a lot for them to have to navigate.

Travis Goff, Kansas’ director of athletics and vice chancellor, credited Yormark and the conference for being open to future discussion and not deciding they have to lock in on a decision already. Goff mentioned there were some assumptions that they would go with 20 league games again in the future, but the movement toward that has slowed down. As they get a handle on having 16 teams in the Big 12, he spoke confidently that with the right kind of deliberation they would land in the right place.

Regardless of what decision is made in the future, Jayhawks graduate center Hunter Dickinson is going to go through a 20-game league slate this season. He’ll have to try to make it through the grind of one of the best, if not the best, conferences in the nation. Reaching the end, in his mind, centers on taking care of yourself.

“Probably a lot of Normatec-ing, a lot of Biofreeze, and just a lot of trying to take care of your body the best you can,” Dickinson said. “Because it is a grueling season, these guys know it, that it’s tough out there on your bodies, on your mental. But that resiliency that you build up through it kind of makes you the person you are and kind of defines who you are as a player.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball's Bill Self hopes Big 12 won’t keep 20 league games