If you’re the type who checks bracketology updates in December, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi just gave you something to chew on. His latest projection dropped this week, and for Big 12 fans, it’s a pretty loaded picture. The league has 10 teams in the current field, and five of them are sitting on the bubble.
Again, it’s mid-December. We haven’t even started conference play yet, so nobody’s handing out invites or hanging banners. But this is where things stand right now, and it paints a clear picture of just how deep the Big 12 might be.
Oklahoma State lands in the Last Four Byes tier, which means they’re technically in, but not a lock. Then you’ve got UCF, Baylor, and Arizona State all hanging around the Last Four In tier. That’s three teams fighting to stay in the Field of 68 as teams ranked 66th, 67th, and 68th. Rounding it out, Colorado shows up in the Next Four Out, not quite there, but close enough to keep an eye on.
The bigger story, if you want one, is that Arizona and Iowa State are both sitting on the one-line. That says a lot about how their non-conference schedules have gone so far, and both have been rolling. Arizona looks like one of the most balanced teams in the country, and Iowa State has been sneaky dominant.
For the rest of the bubble teams, this is more of a checkpoint than anything else. Some of them will rise, others will fall, and a few probably won’t even be in the conversation by mid-January. That’s just how this thing goes. There’s way too much basketball left to overreact to a bracket in December, but it’s still interesting to see where the committee might lean if the season ended today.
It doesn’t, though. These are just placeholders. Fun to look at, but nothing more than a December talking point.
