Thought Tech would be bigger favorites tbh

1. Arizona

Last season: 36-3 (16-2 Big 12), Final Four

Coach: Tommy Lloyd, sixth season at Arizona. Lloyd has established himself as one of the sport’s best coaches. He has three regular-season conference titles, three conference tourney titles and a Final Four appearance.

Key player: Ivan Kharchenkov is a candidate to go from glue guy to star. He averaged 26.3 points per game this summer on Arizona's trip to Lithuania.

Stat to know: Arizona held opponents to an effective field-goal percentage of 42.6 percent when Krivas was on the floor last season, per CBB Analytics. The last four national champs have all ranked in the top five in that statistic. Krivas is the country's best and most valuable defender.

Why they're interesting: Lloyd has the formula to win with an elite defense and a frontline that can dominate on the glass. He also has the best talent, especially on the wing, where Kharchenkov and Caleb Holt could end up as lottery picks. Another conference title and No. 1 seed seem within reach.

2. Texas Tech

Last season: 23-11 (12-6), Round of 32

Coach: Grant McCasland, fourth season at Texas Tech. McCasland is three-for-three making NCAA Tournaments and it looks like he'll be in Lubbock for a long time.

Key player: JT Toppin. He was on track to win Big 12 Player of the Year for the second consecutive season until a torn ACL ended his year in mid-February. How quickly and effectively he returns could determine where Texas Tech ends up.

Stat to know: Texas Tech's projected starting lineup this season made 407 3-pointers last season. Tulsa led college basketball a year ago with 399 3-pointers made.

Why they're interesting: If everyone is eligible and if Toppin isn't a shell of himself, this is one of the most talented offensive lineups in college hoops. Texas Tech offensive coordinator Jeff Linder is elite at moving chess pieces around and getting the most out of his weapons. He has everything he needs to build a juggernaut offense.

3. Houston

Last season: 30-7 (14-4), Sweet 16

Coach: Kelvin Sampson, 13th season at Houston. The Cougars were an irrelevant has-been when Sampson arrived and are now one of the country's most consistent programs. Houston has reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament seven straight times, the longest current streak in the sport.

Key player: Joseph Tugler. Houston has ranked top-four nationally in defense in each of Tugler's three seasons. The Coogs started playing through Tugler more on the offensive end late last year, with Tugler averaging 11.4 points over Houston's final nine games. He's one of the country's most valuable bigs.

Stat to know: Delrecco Gillespie generated 6 points per game off post-ups for Kent State last year, per Synergy, which ranked in the top 50 nationally. Houston lost offensive diversity when J'Wan Roberts graduated in 2025. The hope is that Gillespie, Tugler, and freshman 7-footer Arafan Diane let the Coogs play more inside-out and dominate the offensive glass again, another area where Houston wasn't as good last season.

Read the rest for free here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7686863/2026/10/14/big-12-basketball-predictions-arizona-houston-kansas/?unlocked_article_code=1.IlE.w9MM.DHf0J7ElRknp&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta

I enjoy all versions of Big 12 football -- the games between bad teams and the games between great ones. But this weekend is big for this conference in terms of how even a tiny bit of perception can be changed by the outcome of these games.

THE game of the week is BYU hosting Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a great team but so is BYU. I think I am mostly excited for CFB casuals to witness a great environment outside of the ones they see frequently (looking at you SEC homers). BYU winning would be ideal for the conference, (not Utah fans) but even if they're competitive, I still think that goes a long way in proving our best teams can hang with other great teams from around the country.

The other big game in the Big 12 is Houston hosting Oklahoma State. From what I'm looking at on ticket websites, this should be a sellout and an entertaining game between two under the radar teams in the Big 12 race. Whoever wins this game will get a much needed resume boost.

But even the more under the radar type games at least have that rivalry factor to them with the Revivalry, the Sunflower Showdown, and while not true "rivals", WVU and Cincy at least have some history as former Big East foes.

As an Iowa State fan, I am glad we have a bye week to watch the chaos unfold and I'm hoping for some really entertaining games this weekend.

This is a hypothetical and not a prediction.

Let's say BYU beats Notre Dame on Saturday. They then lose to lose to a #10 Utah on the road in November but win the rest of their games to end up at 11-1. Notre Dame wins the rest of their games and also ends up at 11-1. Texas Tech and Utah both go 12-0 and end up in the championship game. Texas Tech beats Utah in a close game to get the guaranteed playoff spot.

So what would happen with Utah, BYU and Notre Dame at that point as far as the playoffs go? An 11-1 Notre Dame should be in the playoffs but what about BYU (11-1) and Utah (12-1)?

BYU and Notre Dame would both be 11-1, each only a loss to a top 10 team on the road, but BYU would have the head to head win. Utah would be 12-1 with their only loss being in the championship game by one score but beating the team that beat Notre Dame.

The Port Arthur Memorial athlete committed to the Utes on Sunday after his official visit to Salt Lake City for the whiteout game.

Hey all, my friend put together this customizable realignment tool that includes every previous year's setup as a base point & shows history every time you click on a school/conference, meant for football and basketball. It also includes exhaustive history. If you have any questions or feedback, his X @ is @/TheLuckyDevil7. With JMU now in the news, I hope at least one of you finds this useful.

On the other side if BYU loses it’s for sure Miami ND, yeah?

The top three teams saw just small changes in their CCG odds this week, while Houston's chances have increased significantly to 16.7%. If Houston can win their next two games vs Oklahoma St and @ Utah, their odds will increase to about 50%.

Houston @ OSU is the most interesting conference game this week for the CCG, and BYU vs Notre Dame is likely going to speak volumes about how BYU holds up under pressure.

Full interactive odds, matchups, and what-if scenarios: https://sportssimulate.com/cfb/2026/latest/B12

⚠️ Ballots will only be accepted from users with flairs. If you haven't already, please flair up.

Cast your ballot by commenting anywhere on this post. You can put whatever you want in your comment, but your ballot must begin with {{start}} and end with {{end}}. In between, list off the schools from #1 (best) to #16 (worst). Each school must be on its own line and that line cannot include any additional text. Bulleted and numbered lists are fine. Please use school names, since there are some schools with matching team names. You must include all 16 schools and multiple schools cannot share the same rank.

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{{start}}
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Arizona State
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BYU
Cincinnati
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Houston
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas Tech
UCF
Utah
West Virginia
{{end}}

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I will run a script on Wednesday morning to collect all the ballots and generate the rankings. I'll make a separate post with the results and a distribution table.

any help is appreciated, even a view is. Searching for the real nerds only.

We have a local Mormon owned news station (KSL) in Utah that runs a Classified section on their website. (Think Craigslist)
I've never seen so many ads for tickets in my life. The Mormon folk are taking the concept of Free Enterprise to a whole new level this week!

Only need 3 more wins, can Frost get there with this remaining schedule?

I've seen so many people (including other Utah fans) saying that Utah will benefit from a Blue Liberty win on Saturday. I just can't bring myself to cheer for Blue Liberty, for so many obvious reasons. As much as I also dislike Notre Dame, I'm hoping to see Blue Liberty get absolutely stomped.

It seems like Utah's odds of making the playoff are barely impacted by this game. Instead, Utah's chances almost entirely come down to the Holy War.

If Utah wins the Holy War: the conference championship is likely between Utah and TTU, in which case I think it's very possible that both teams will get a playoff spot. This is true regardless of whether Blue Liberty wins or loses to ND.

In the extremely unlikely scenario that Utah loses the Holy War: it's unlikely for Utah to make it to the conference championship, and even less likely for Utah to get an at-large playoff spot. This is true regardless of whether Blue Liberty wins or loses to ND.

The most realistic way in which a Blue Liberty win over ND could help Utah is if Utah subsequently wins out (including the Holy War), but loses in the conference championship game. It's quite possible that this scenario occurs. But it just doesn't seem likely that a matchup between two other teams in mid-October will play a significant role in determining whether Utah gets an at-large playoff spot. Am I wrong?

What does Arizona need to do to get ranked? 1 loss to #8 BYU and the voters really think SMU or Boise State are better?

Respectfully, from a Utah fan, please do something this week 🙏

The best QB currently starting at a Texas college is Connor Weigman at Houston. I bet A&M would love to have him back.

Big 12 Teams in bold:

Others Receiving Votes:
Wisconsin, Oregon, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma, James Madison, Florida, Duke, New Mexico, Oregon State

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

My girlfriend was mean to me and told me that I only love college football so much, because of what was done to the rams and I'm from St. Louis, Missouri.