Five teams from the Big 12 are in the AP top 25. But that pales in comparison to the whopping nine projected bids to the NCAA tournament they currently have, far and away the most of any conference. Featuring the number one team in the country right now, Houston, riding a nine-game winning streak, and just two teams that finished with below .500 records on the season, the Big 12 tournament is the most exciting event of men’s college basketball championship week.
Here’s everything you need to know about when, where, and how the best conference in men’s college basketball will fight it out.
Big 12 Tournament Format and Schedule
The Big 12 tournament will be in the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, March 12, through Saturday, March 16.
It follows the same 14-team format that some of the other Power Five conferences follow. This means the bottom four seeds (#11-14) will play in the first round on day one. Then, the #5-10 seeds will play their first game on day two, some against each other and some against the winners of day one. Then, the winners on day two advance to the quarterfinals, where they will face the double bye-earning #1-4 teams in the conference.
Most of the earlier games in the week will only be available via streaming on ESPN+. As the week goes on, though, games will migrate over to ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN by the time the weekend and championship game rolls around.
First round — Tuesday, March 12
Game 1: No. 12 UCF vs. No. 13 Oklahoma State | 12:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN+
Game 2: No. 11 Cincinnati vs. No. 14 West Virginia | 3 p.m. on ESPN+
Second round — Wednesday, March 13
Game 3: No. 5 BYU vs. Game 1 winner | 12:30 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
Game 4: No. 8 TCU vs. No. 9 Oklahoma | 3 p.m. on ESPN+
— midday break —
Game 5: No. 7 Texas vs. No. 10 Kansas State | 7 p.m. on ESPN+
Game 6: No. 6 Kansas vs. Game 2 winner | 9:30 p.m. on ESPN2/ESPNU
Quarterfinals — Thursday, March 14
Game 7: No. 4 Texas Tech vs. Game 3 winner | 12:30 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
Game 8: No. 1 Houston vs. Game 4 winner | 3 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
— midday break —
Game 9: No. 2 Iowa State vs. Game 5 winner | 7 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
Game 10: No. 3 Baylor vs. Game 6 winner | 9:30 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
Semifinals — Friday, March 15
Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner | 7 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner | 9:30 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2
Big 12 Championship Game — Saturday, March 16
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner | 6 p.m. on ESPN
Big 12 Tournament storylines
The Big 12’s embarrassment of riches and depth makes this the most compelling conference tournament of the week. Every game seriously impacts the bubble teams in the conference or, for the heavy hitters, their seeding come selection Sunday. From Houston gunning for the number one overall seed to Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech, BYU, and even Kansas fighting to overthrow them, it’s on.
Every single team in this conference has beaten a top-25 team this season. There are no guarantees, especially in March. So strap in and prepare for the premier ride this conference championship week. It’s going to be a great one.
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