The Big 12 is moving its baseball tournament to Surprise Stadium in Arizona on an annual basis starting next season, the conference announced Monday.
The facility, located northwest of Phoenix, is the spring training home to the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.
“We are excited to continue our partnership with REV Entertainment as the Big 12 Baseball Championship moves to a world-class venue in Arizona,” Scott Draper, the Big 12’s chief competition officer, said in a news release.
“Surprise Stadium is a premier facility that will create a great atmosphere and experience for our student-athletes and fans.”
Since its inception in 1997, the Big 12 tournament has been held in either Texas or Oklahoma.
Surprise Stadium is considered one of the top spring training facilities in baseball. (It was No. 1 in a recent USA Today ranking.) The capacity is 10,714, making it more intimate than the tournament’s current location, Globe Life Field in Arlington, the Rangers’ home stadium with 40,000 seats.
The venue offers lawn seating, air-conditioned suites and other premium seating areas, according to the Big 12. It has played host to MLB spring training for two decades as well as Arizona Fall League competition.
The decision will undoubtedly be well received by two of the conference’s new members, Arizona State and Arizona, and fits within the Big 12’s broader strategy of integrating into the expanded geography.
In the past two years, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Houston, Brigham Young, Colorado, Utah and the Arizona schools have joined the conference.
The Big 12 held its football media extravaganza in Las Vegas last summer, weeks before the Four Corners schools officially made their move from the Pac-12.
And the spring business meetings are set for UCF’s hometown, Orlando, at the end of the month.
The other major events are staying put: The football championship game is set for AT&T Stadium in Arlington through 2030, while the basketball tournaments are locked into T-Mobile Center in Kansas City through 2031.
The final Big 12 baseball tournament at Globe Life Field begins Wednesday with West Virginia as the top seed. Schools representing the conference’s western arm are seeded No. 4 (Arizona), No. 5 (Arizona State) and No. 12 (Brigham Young).
Utah failed to qualify; Colorado doesn’t sponsor baseball.
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