COLORADO SPRINGS -- A proposal to expand Big 12 Conference basketball schedules from 16 to 18 games has no legs with the league's coaches.

The men's coaches voted unanimously against it Tuesday on the first day of the conference's annual spring meetings at the Broadmoor Hotel, and the women's coaches discussed it only briefly with no vote.

However, there is historical precedent in the conference for athletic directors to overrule the wishes of their coaches. The league's football coaches voted unanimously against the creation of a conference championship game and the athletic directors voted unanimously for it.

The athletic directors will vote on expanding the basketball conference schedule later this week.

Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon and Iowa State coach Greg McDermott led the charge against the proposal based on their experience with an 18-game league schedule in their former jobs at Missouri Valley Conference schools.

"They scared me," said Texas Tech coach Pat Knight, who served as the group's spokesman.

"They were really painting a bad picture of it. Then we just discussed beating each other up another two games."

Knight said the coaches considered the issue in a joint meeting with the athletic directors and understand their bosses' concerns about the escalating costs of paying unheralded programs high prices for games that often are not as well attended. Those arguments persuaded the coaches to commit to trying to schedule more games against teams from the other power conferences or successful programs outside the big leagues.

Scheduling other power conference teams would also help RPI ratings at the end of the year, which are a big factor in helping to determine postseason participants.

Oklahoma women's coach Sherri Coale said the Big 12's status as the No. 1 conference in the nation in both attendance and RPI in the women's game in recent years left little motivation for expanding the conference slate.

Men's basketball coaches discussed a variety of other issues, including modeling the challenge series with the Pac-10 more like the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, by finding a corporate sponsor and playing all the games within 10 days or two weeks.

The Big 12 and Pac-10 began a challenge series last season with programs such as Texas playing UCLA and Colorado battling Stanford.

Knight said basketball coaches also have interest in making sure there is at least one official with an A rating working each conference game.

"It gives us the confidence knowing we have one of our top guys," he said.

The NCAA recently began an investigation into allegations that Southern Cal freshman O.J. Mayo had been receiving improper benefits from an agent. That spawned discussion among Big 12 coaches about the possibility of restricting access to players by agents on campuses and no longer providing agents with video of players.

Coaches also talked about working with the NBA and its players' association on a system more closely resembling the NFL, which mandates that players cannot be eligible for its draft until three years after their graduating class left high school.

Notable

Last year the conference changed the schedule for its conference basketball tournament with the change from a Sunday men's championship game to Saturday set to go into effect next season. The schedule was finalized Tuesday with the semifinals Friday at 6 and 8:20 p.m. (CST) and the championship Saturday at 5 p.m. ... Pat Knight started the basketball coaches meeting by congratulating Kansas coach Bill Self and his program for winning the first men's basketball national title in Big 12 history. "That was really big for our league," Knight said.