Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

1/20/2012 at 9:04am

In the Southeastern Conference, Atlanta and New Orleans are current homes of football and basketball championships. Those large metros easily handle the influx of fans from the current twelve schools. Direct flights are easy to find, the hotels all have cable and natural disasters like floods or tornadoes only interrupt the tournament once every generation or so.

But bringing in Texas A&M and Missouri into the folds of the SEC also brings in cities just as big and accomodating as Atlanta. Could the conference football championship ever come to Reliant Stadium in Houston? Kansas City is already thinking up ways to grab the basketball tournament.

[Missouri athletic director Mike] Alden also reiterated the school’s desire to bring the SEC men’s basketball tournament to Kansas City, possibly as soon as the 2017-18 season.

“They’re gonna take a look at bids throughout their entire footprint, which includes KC,” said Alden, who added that he spoke with SEC officials Tuesday. “I know they’re hoping they would receive a bid and proposal from Kansas City to be able to host their tournament here.”

Acknowledging Kansas City's unique location between two regions, city leaders have even said they'll work to bring the Big 12 Tournament to town, since Lawrence, Kan., is even closer to the metro than Columbia, Mo., is.

All in all, it's not just the schools in the SEC who are seeing more competition.

Tagged: Kansas City, Southeastern Conference