In some conferences, if a team doesn’t play their best in any given game they can still win. On the men’s side of the Big 12 Conference, this doesn’t always apply.
I am one of many who thinks the Big 12 is the best conference in the country for many reasons.
The first reason is that the worst team record-wise can beat even the best team. On Tuesday night, Oklahoma State, who was tied for last in the Big 12, defeated Kansas, who was tied for first in the Big 12. This shows that if a team doesn’t bring it against any team in the lower part of the conference, they can still lose.
I don’t know many other conferences in which something like that can happen.
In the latest AP Top 25 poll, half of the Big 12 teams are ranked, three of them among the top 10. No other conference can say that, which shows how dominant Big 12 teams can be.
Being this good comes with consequences, though. Six games into conference play, every team has a loss. Nine of the 10 teams have two or more.
At the end of the day, each team worsens another’s record, which will hurt the Big 12 in the national rankings; however, I think it will help them in the NCAA Tournament. Any Big 12 team will be a tough out in the tournament, and I think when the regular season is said and done there could be seven Big 12 teams in the big dance.
The teams at the top of the pack are the best in the NCAA, and one of them has a great chance to win a national title.
In the basement of the league, no team has a record below .500. K-State, who is second to last in the conference, suffered five of their seven losses to top-25 teams, including two of the current top-10 teams.
The Big 12 Conference is looking better than it ever has before, which is scary because the talent in the past five years and beyond was very good. Whichever team wins this conference will be able to call itself the best team of the best conference in the country, which is something that even the most consistent team through 18 games cannot say.
As sports fans, let’s just sit back and have fun watching students storm the court through the rest of this month and February, because you know the craziness of Big 12 conference play has only just begun.
