On Tuesday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released a new bracketology update, which featured several teams from the Big 12 Conference.
The eight teams listed as tournament participants are (1) Iowa State, (2) Kansas, (4) Houston, (6) Arizona, (6) West Virginia, (8) Baylor, (8) Texas Tech, (11) UCF,
TJ Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones earned the title of the Big 12’s top-ranked team, listed as a one-seed in the West Region. They sit at 15-2 overall with losses to No. 1 Auburn and West Virginia while having claimed two Quad 1 wins against No. 10 Marquette and No. 12 Kansas.
While the Big 12 has without question earned the right to dub itself the nation’s premier college basketball conference, in Lunardi’s update, the SEC and Big Ten both placed more teams in the tournament than the Big 12, with 12 teams and 10 teams, respectively.
In the scenario listed above, the matchups based on seeding would look like this.
(1) Iowa State vs. (16) Longwood/Howard
(2) Kansas vs. (15) UNC Asheville
(4) Houston vs. (13) Samford
(6) Arizona vs. (11) Pittsburgh/Nebraska
(6) West Virginia vs. (11) New Mexico
(8) Baylor vs. (9) Maryland
(8) Texas Tech vs. (9) St. Mary’s
(11) UCF/Indiana vs. (6) Louisville
While the 2025 NCAA Tournament is still nearly seven weeks away, the eight teams listed above from the Big 12 Conference are currently passing the eye test as tournament bids, at least in the eyes of Joe Lunardi.
