The Big 12 Tournament is set to tip off on March 11, meaning there's less than a month until postseason basketball is underway. Arizona State has a snowflake's chance in Tucson to win the conference like its football counterpart but weirder things have happened in college sports.
As the final stretch of regular season games approach, bracketologists will be concocting their projections for the field of 68 teams that will compete for the 2025 national championship. The Big 12 always has multiple teams factoring into those predictions and this season is no different.
According to the NCAA's Andy Katz, five programs are currently slated to represent the conference in the tournament's top 16 seeds.
The Top 16 seeds in bracket form 👀#BracketPreview pic.twitter.com/zA3qrDHht3
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 15, 2025
Big 12 teams dominate top of NCAA tournament field
The top five squads in the Big 12 Conference standings are projected to round out the top 16 seeds in the NCAA tournament (seeds 1-4 in each quadrant). To date, none are good enough to earn a No. 1 seed but that could change over the next six weeks.
Houston (20-4, 12-1) tops the group as a two-seed in the West region. If that hypothetical tournament went to seed, the Cougars would be slated to face three-seed Kentucky out of the SEC in the Elite Eight.
Arizona (17-7, 11-2) and Iowa State (19-5, 9-4) are pegged as three-seeds in the East and Midwest regions respectively. The Wildcats would face two-seed Tennessee and the Cyclones would meet Purdue in a perfect (read boring) tournament.
Texas Tech (19-5, 10-3) and Kansas (17-7, 8-5) round out the Big 12's representation as four-seeds in the South and Midwest regions respectively. The Red Raiders would see one-seed Auburn and the Jayhawks would take on Alabama, two huge matchups that could be ripe upset material if they pan out.
The Big 12 is bound to have more than just five teams in this year's tournament. Recent projections have at least eight qualifying, but unfortunately ASU is no longer one of them and is nowhere to be seen on the bubble.