After the initial two-year agreement, an option of a one- to three-year extension may be exercised by the Conference.
"We are pleased to award the 2017 and 2018 Big 12 wrestling championships to Tulsa. The city and sports commission have shown a commitment to bringing Big 12 events to Tulsa and have a strong interest in the sport of wrestling," said Bowlsby.
The championship will be contested at the BOK Center, a 565,000-square-foot, 19,199-seat multi-purpose arena that hosts athletics competitions, concerts, conventions and other special events. Ground was broken on the facility in 2005 and the first events were hosted in August of 2008. The BOK Center is the flagship project of Tulsa County's Vision 2025 long-range development initiative.
"On behalf of the Tulsa Sports Commission leadership and staff, I am excited that our collective effort to continue to host Big 12 Conference events in Tulsa has been fruitful," said Vince Trinidad, Executive Director, Tulsa Sports Commission. "Many community partners joined us to put forth an aggressive but sustainable bid to bring this event to Tulsa. I would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to SMG and the BOK Center for being the host venue and the Tulsa community for embracing the Big 12 during the 2015 Big 12 Baseball Championship. That support proved that Tulsa is currently and will continue to be an ideal sports destination."
The Big 12 Wrestling Championship will expand to a two-day event with a 10-team field in 2016. Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and West Virginia will be joined by six wrestling affiliate members Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming. The wrestlers participating in the Big 12 championship will be competing for berths into the NCAA Wrestling Championship.
Conference institutions hosted the wrestling championship on campus from 1997-2015. The 2016 event will be held in Kansas City's Sprint Center March 5-6.
For additional information on Big 12 wrestling, visit Big12Sports.com.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now