The Big 12 women’s basketball regular season have just one round of games remaining before all 16 teams head to Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament.
By Sunday, we will know the full field. In fact, the No. 1 seed won’t be determined until TCU and Baylor meet each other on Sunday afternoon.
But, much has been solidified going into the weekend in terms of seeding.
As a reminder, we used the Big 12 rules on the web site for tiebreakers.
If the Big 12 women’s tournament started today, here is how the tournament would be seeded.
Seeds Nos. 1-4: Double Byes
No. 1 TCU (15-2)
No. 2 Baylor (15-2)
No. 3 Oklahoma State (13-4)
No. 4 Kansas State (13-4)
So, here we go. On Sunday, TCU will go to Waco to face Baylor and decide the winner of the Big 12 regular-season title. The winner will also get the No. 1 seed. The loser will get the No. 2 seed. TCU won the first meeting in Fort Worth.
Both the Horned Frogs and Bears have clinched double byes.
It’s almost like the Big 12 had the script, right?
Meanwhile, Kansas State and Oklahoma State are now tied for third place. Both are eliminated from winning the conference. OSU has the No. 3 seed thanks to its head-to-head win over KSU. But nothing is locked in just yet. A loss by either shakes up the seeding and, perhaps, backslides them out of the double byes.
If you’re thinking ahead OSU beat Utah and split with West Virginia. Kansas State beat Utah and lost to West Virginia. Keep that in mind if we get chaos this weekend.
Seeds Nos. 5-8: Single Byes
No. 5 West Virginia (12-5)
No. 6 Utah (12-5)
No. 7 Iowa State (11-6)
No. 8 Colorado (9-8)
I wrote before this week that the Utah-West Virginia game would be pivotal to seeding and it was. With a win, the Mountaineers are No. 5. With a loss, they’re still No. 5 as long as Utah loses. Why? Because even in a three-way tie with Utah and Iowa State, WVU wins the tiebreaker because it has wins over both teams.
The only way WVU and Utah flip is if WVU loses and Utah wins. If WVU ends up in a tie for sixth with Iowa State, WVU wins the tiebreaker.
Iowa State is locked in at No. 7 based on the tiebreakers.
Colorado will be the No. 8 seed because it beat Arizona. If Colorado loses and Arizona wins this weekend, the two teams be tied but the Buffs will get the final single bye thanks to the tiebreaker.
First Round (Seeds 9-16)
No. 9 Arizona (9-8)
No. 10 Cincinnati (7-10)
No. 11 Kansas (6-11)
No. 12 BYU (4-13)
No. 13 UCF (3-14)
No. 14 Arizona State (3-14)
No. 15 Texas Tech (3-14)
No. 16 Houston (1-16)
Nothing changed here, but a few notes.
Arizona will be No. 9. Cincinnati is locked in at No. 10. If the Bearcats lose and the Jayhawks win, Cincinnati has the tiebreaker. Kansas is locked in at No. 11 as a result.
BYU locks itself in at No. 12 with a win. There is a possibility of a four-way tie between BYU (lose to Utah), UCF, Arizona State and Texas Tech (all three win their finales).
Houston is locked in at No. 16 and will play Arizona in the first round.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
