Big 12 Women’s Basketball Power Rankings for Week 3
The Big 12 women’s basketball season is now three weeks old and thanks to this past weekend’s holiday tournaments, more separation is emerging.
Below we present our third Big 12 women’s basketball power rankings for the 2023-24 season.
Tier One
1. Texas (7-0) – Last Week — 2
2. Kansas State (6-1) – Last Week — 3
3. Baylor (5-0) – Last Week — 4
4. Oklahoma (5-2) – Last Week — 1
Texas moves up to the top stop, though I was prepared to move Kansas State to No. 1 had the Wildcats beaten Iowa a second time. But, even with the Wildcats losing, I still moved them up to No. 2 because they have a second ranked win now, which came against North Carolina.
Baylor is undefeated but only has one win over a ranked team to this point, so that’s a differentiator. Oklahoma lost twice in Florida — to Princeton and to Tennessee. So the Sooners falls to No. 4, but I wasn’t prepared to drop them from the first tier yet.
Tier Two
5. TCU (7-0) – Last Week — 5
6. West Virginia (6-0) – Last Week — 6
7. BYU (6-0) – Last Week — 7
8. Texas Tech (7-0) – Last Week — 8
9. UCF (6-0) – Last Week — 12
10. Houston (4-0) – Last Week — 10
None of the teams on Tier 2 have a ranked win to this point, which is why none of them have moved up to the first tier. Some have beaten Power 6 teams, but none has beaten a ranked team. They all share an undefeated record to this point, so they stay on this tier. Until they gets shots at ranked teams — which for some may not come until Big 12 play — there isn’t much difference here.
Tier Three
11. Kansas (2-3) – Last Week — 9
12. Oklahoma State (3-3) – Last Week — 11
13. Cincinnati (3-3) – Last Week — 13
14. Iowa State (2-3) – Last Week — 14
I debated leaving Kansas on Tier 2 because I think they’re a better team than the record. But they lost both games to Virginia Tech and UConn (though Kansas had every chance to beat VT) and they’re now 0-2 against ranked teams. KU is taking lumps now, but it should pay off later.
As for OSU, Cincinnati and Iowa State, all have taken their lumps, too. But Iowa State stays at the bottom because it hasn’t played a ranked team yet and both OSU and Cincinnati have. In fact, Cincinnati has probably played too many.
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