Big 12 Awards Football Championship To Dallas, Basketball To KC

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) _ The appeal of playing in new facilities was too hard for the Big 12 Conference to resist. <br/><br/>The league's board of directors approved proposals Thursday to hold

Thursday, May 24th 2007, 8:24 pm

By: News On 6

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) _ The appeal of playing in new facilities was too hard for the Big 12 Conference to resist.

The league's board of directors approved proposals Thursday to hold its football championship in the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium and the basketball title game in Kansas City's Sprint Center, providing both are completed in time.

The championship games will be held in the venues over a two-year period, beginning with the 2009-10 season. The deals are pending completion of facilities and negotiations.

At its annual spring meeting, the board also approved a proposal to move the men's basketball tournament championship game from Sunday to Saturday, beginning with the 2008-09 season. The game will be televised on ESPN between the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals and the Big East finals. The women's game will now be held Sunday.

The switch gives the NCAA men's selection committee more time to evaluate Big 12 teams.

Kansas City, Mo., will host the basketball tournament next season while San Antonio hosts the football championship.

The board also voted to hold the 2008-09 football championship at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The basketball tournament in '09 will take place in Oklahoma City.

Dallas's new state-of-the-art, 100,000-seat facility is raking in new business. NFL owners recently voted to play the 2011 Super Bowl in the Cowboys' stadium in Arlington, Texas.

``There's always an attractiveness to new facilities,'' Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg. ``We're optimistic it (the stadiums) will be done.''