The annual Big 12 spring meetings begin today at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and continue through Friday. Unlike past years, this year’s meetings will not be geared towards scrutinizing television contracts or figuring out championship sites. Instead, there is only one hot topic on the docket - basketball schedules.

The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball coaches will decide whether to push the conference schedule from 16 to 18 games this winter. That means each Big 12 North team will play two Big 12 South teams twice on a rotation that will repeat every three seasons. Same goes for the South to the North.

The advantage to adding conference games is a boost to the RPI. The Big 12 finished first in women’s RPI and third in the men. Both sides had a record setting or tying number of NCAA Tournament teams (women had eight, men had six), and would like to see the trend continue.

There’s also a financial advantage, especially for teams with lower basketball revenues. For teams such as Colorado or Texas Tech, the additional two conference games means saving at least $100,000 on the men’s side and about $30,000 on the women’s on guarantee games those teams would have had to book in the non-conference season.

Guarantee games, games against obscure lesser-known opponents, can be upwards of $100,000 for men and $20,000 for women each. When you take into account that those games rarely draw the fan support a major conference opponent might draw, teams often lose money in the transaction. Adding the conference games means schools with less revenue can pocket the money for something else.

But, as I hinted at before, there is a negative trade-off for fans. With the RPI-boosting games on the back end of the schedule, Big 12 teams might be apt to schedule easier non-conference opponents for balance.

Last season, the Missouri men’s team led the nation with seven non-conference games against teams from power conferences. No other Big 12 team played more than five, and Colorado and Texas Tech were on the low end with two.

Missouri assistant coach Matt Zimmerman assembles MU’s men’s basketball schedule and said ideally, Mizzou wants to play five non-conference games against major opponents. MU already plans to go to Puerto Rico for a non-conference tournament, which could net Mizzou three major opponents, and will play Illinois and Cal. Although there are calls out to several teams, there are no definitive plans to play any other major opponents.

We will know today if the coaches approve the measure because it’s the only day they meet. The athletic directors meet twice today and could vote as well. If both parties approve, the plan will go to the board of directors, who meet on Friday.

I’ll be loitering around the Broadmoor throughout the day, talking to MU basketball and football coaches and tracking down athletics director Mike Alden. Check back here throughout the day for updates on the meetings.