On Thursday, 247Sports’ Isaac Trotter continued to release his tiers for Power Conference basketball teams, and finally, the Big 12 ranks dropped.
All 16 teams were placed into one of five categories: title contenders (Tier 1), Top-25 caliber club (Tier 2), tournament team (Tier 3), bubblicious (Tier 4), and the basement (Tier 5).
TIER 1 – TITLE CONTENDERS
The exclusive club at the top of the Big 12 is reserved for three parties in the eyes of Isaac Trotter. Those three teams include Houston, Texas Tech, and BYU.
Milos Uzan’s return to Houston likely places the Cougars as the preseason favorite to win it all in 2025-26, while Texas Tech and BYU have added a surplus of talent to two already incredibly well-built rosters.
TIER 2 – TOP-25 CALIBER CLUB
The next tier isn’t very surprising to see here as the Arizona Wildcats, Kansas Jayhawks, and Iowa State Cyclones all should be named to the Preseason Top 25.
Arizona and Iowa State will both be in without a doubt, but some critics of the Jayhawks have started to chime in, including the Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster, who each placed Kansas as one of the biggest losers of the offseason.
TIER 3 – TOURNAMENT TEAM
Just one Big 12 team earned the title of a tournament team: Scott Drew and the Baylor Bears. Drew lost star point guard Rob Wright to BYU, a likely textbook example of some of the issues surrounding modern college basketball, but was able to fill the gap with one of the portal’s best point guards, Obi Agbim from Wyoming.
TIER 4 – BUBBLICIOUS
Three teams were named to the bubblicious tier, including Kansas State, Cincinnati, and West Virginia, a group of teams with two coaches in need of a big year, and one brand-new coach in the Big 12.
For Cincinnati and Kansas State, the plan was straightforward: replace their outgoing talent with a surplus of talented players and return to the NCAA Tournament. Jerome Tang got the job done with just three returners and incoming transfers like the AAC POY PJ Haggerty and the MAC POY Nate Johnson, paired with some overseas commitments. Cincinnati paired a dynamic front court of Baba Miller (FAU Transfer) and Moustapha Thiam (UCF Transfer) with some notable returners and an incoming five-star freshman.
West Virginia, led by former UNT Coach Ross Hodge, brought over several stars from the Mean Greene, paired with a dynamic scorer from North Dakota, Treyson Eaglestaff. Despite losing Darian DeVries to Indiana, the Mountaineers find themselves with a solid coach in a great situation.
TIER 5 – THE BASEMENT
Despite the basement being a tier that no one wants to be in, the group features the most teams from the league than any other tier, with a total of six.
Oklahoma State, TCU, UCF, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona State all earned trips to the basement for various reasons, but ultimately, their rosters lack sufficient talent on paper.
Can that change in a league like the Big 12? Absolutely! But for now, they reside in the basement with a hard path ahead to climb out.
