The Big 12 Needs a Big March

March is here, ladies and gentlemen. While I’m excited about the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament this week in Kansas City, the real nitty gritty for the league starts next week in the NCAA tournament. 

Last March was a disaster for the Big 12. After a historic non-conference performance, the league failed to get a team past the Sweet Sixteen, which completely validated the ACC’s league-wide cry that the Big 12 was overrated. 

The ACC narrative (Clemson head coach Brad Brownell led the charge) was that the Big 12 purposely played a weak non-conference schedule to increase its margin of victory and pump up its computer numbers. Once Big 12 teams carried those inflated computer numbers into league play, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy that the conference was elite. 

That argument had clear flaws, but it was hard to dispute the ACC’s conclusion after they sent three teams to the Elite Eight, including Brownell’s Clemson Tigers, who thumped Baylor to get there. 

Now, you can add an underwhelming 2024-25 Big 12 regular season on top of that. 

Not only is the Big 12 well behind the SEC in KenPom’s conference rankings, but they’re also behind the Big Ten. The new-look Big 12 has played third fiddle all year despite adding perennial power Arizona to the league this season. 

The SEC stole the show with a historic season of its own. Depending on how the bubble shakes out, the SEC will land a record 13 or 14 teams in the NCAA tournament. Six of those teams are currently projected as top three seeds. The SEC also had the best non-conference record for a league in the modern era.

The Big 12 didn’t help its cause by going 2-14 against the SEC. It also doesn’t help that league flagbearer Kansas is enduring its worst season of the Bill Self era. The Jayhawks are merely solid to good instead of elite. The same can be said of recent national champion Baylor. 

But you can erase being a regular season afterthought with a magical March in the NCAA tournament. Much like a strong College Football Playoff performance, it can do the heavy lifting for a conference’s narrative. 

That narrative is important for the Big 12 if it wants to fully capitalize on commissioner Brett Yormark’s vision to eventually de-couple the basketball media rights to sell as a separate package. That idea can potentially become a way for the league to close the gap on the SEC and Big Ten financially, but it won’t work if the league continues to play third fiddle to the Power Two in hoops. 

That puts plenty of pressure on Houston, Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Arizona, all of whom are likely to be top-four seeds. 

Houston’s toughness gives it a high floor come tourney time, but do the Cougars have the shot-making ability to win it all? The Big 12 entrenched itself as the king of college hoops by reaching three straight title games from 2019 to 2022. 

Iowa State, Arizona, and Texas Tech have all had stretches of brilliance, but can they string enough of those efforts together four times in a row in March?

The dark horse is BYU. The Cougars are up to a five seed in the latest Joe Lunardi Bracketology and are playing like a top-five team in the country. Bart Torvik says only Duke has played better basketball over the last month of the season. 

It will be hard to one-up the SEC this year because of the sheer volume of teams they have in the tournament, but a run to the national championship game would go a long way for Yormark and the Big 12.

What You Need to Know

• Speaking of the SEC, Ken Pomeroy’s latest blog asked: “Is the SEC overrated?” He points out that leagues performing at a historic level during the regular season typically disappoint in the tournament. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey didn’t take kindly to CBS Sports’ Danny Kannel pushing that opinion on Twitter. Who knew Sankey had itchy Twitter fingers like the rest of us?

• The All-Big 12 awards have been released. Texas Tech star JT Toppin was named Big 12 Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Kelvin Sampson took home Coach of the Year honors. Houston won three individual conference awards. 

• If you’re a hater of the Big 12 tournament court in Kansas City, do NOT listen to this clip of Brett Yormark. He doubles down on why he loves the look of it and how much attention it generates. 

• The ACC settlement could lead us closer to a Super League in college football. The Athletic has the details, including a fascinating quote from a Power Four AD, about why Project Rudy is gaining some steam as a possibility in the early 2030s. If Project Rudy still plans on keeping 70 teams in the Super League, that would be great news for Big 12 schools. 

• Who is the most hated team in the Big 12?Josh Pate says a former Big 12 team is the most hated college football team overall, so I dug in to find out who the most hated team currently in the Big 12 is.

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