The Big 12 Conference was dark on Tuesday night. It was a chance for basketball fans to catch their breath and get ready for a slate of Wednesday games. It also gave us a chance to assess where each of the league’s 16 coaches stand going into the rest of the season. Which ones are safe and which ones have something to worry about? Here’s the mid-season Hot Seat Rankings for Big 12 basketball in the 2025-26 season.
Safe As Houses
Tommy Lloyd, Arizona
Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Bill Self, Kansas
T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State
Grant McCasland, Texas Tech
Kevin Young, BYU
Scott Drew, Baylor
It’s not surprising that any of these seven are on the list. With the exceptions of McCasland and Young, they’ve all won something while coaching in Division I — Big 12 titles (Otzelberger, Sampson), Pac-12 titles (Lloyd) or national titles (Self, Drew). Young is in just his second season but is already leveraging BYU’s considerable NIL apparatus to secure talent. McCasland fits like a glove in Lubbock in just his third season. And, for the record, he won a national title as a junior college head coach.
All also have long-term leverage on their contracts, are among the highest-paid coaches in the profession and don’t need to shop for new jobs or new deals. Their bosses also understand their value to their programs.
Extend Me, Please
Johnny Dawkins, UCF
The Knights are pointed toward the NCAA Tournament after wins over two ranked teams this season, along with Texas A&M. Right now, he’s on a deal that ends after the 2026-27 season, and he now has the leverage to push for a longer extension than the one he got in 2024. He’s only making $2.2 million, well below the safe as houses tier. So a one- or two-year extension that gets him in the $3 million per year range sounds appropriate. No reason to give him the Tang treatment (we’ll get to that).
Promising Starts
Russ Hodge, West Virginia
Steve Lutz, Oklahoma State
Steve Lutz is in his second season leading the Cowboys and they’re on the fringes of reaching the NCAA Tournament. Last season OSU went to the NIT quarterfinals and won 17 games. With two more wins in Big 12 play, the Cowboys can match that. A 20-win season isn’t out of the question, so that’s progress.
Hodge has the Mountaineers playing solid basketball after turning over nearly the entire roster and serving as the program’s fourth head coach in four years. He’s turned WVU Coliseum back into a homecourt advantage (13-1) and a there’s an outside chance at a 20-win season.
There is no need to extend either, but there is good reason for both athletic directors to believe they have the right coach.
Less-Than-Promising Start
Alex Jensen, Utah
The former star player and Rick Majerus protégé hasn’t gotten off to a great start with the Utes, as they’re 9-12 for the season with just one Big 12 win. It’s proof that even in his era of NIL and the transfer portal, one-year turnaround aren’t always the norm.
His only head-coaching experience was with the Canton Charge in the NBA Development League. He’s never been a college head coach. That, combined with his ties to Utah, buys him time. He signed a six-year deal when he started, so Utes fans can settle in. He’ll be there for a while.
It’s All Over But The Press Release
Bobby Hurley, Arizona State
Bobby Hurley was coaching on the last year of his contract, and the Sun Devils are 11-11 overall with a 2-7 record in the Big 12. He’s been openly critical about the fan support this season and there is nowhere for Arizona State to go but a new direction. Once ASU’s time in the Big 12 Tournament is done, Hurley and the Sun Devils will part ways. Chances are, athletic director Graham Rossini has already started looking for his replacement.
The Hot Seat Bubble Coaches
Tad Boyle, Colorado
Wes Miller, Cincinnati
Jamie Dixon, TCU
I’m not sure what to do with these three, or what their administrators want to do. Boyle has been with the Buffs since before they left the Big 12 and has more than 300 wins at the school. CU last went to the NCAA Tournament. His program has been hit hard by graduation, the NBA and the transfer portal the past two seasons. He has a rolling five-year contract and makes less than $3 million. Adding to the math is a new athletic director, Fernando Lovo, and it’s not clear what he’ll do.
Wes Miller has won nearly 100 games at Cincinnati, but in his fifth year at the helm the Bearcats have not made the NCAA Tournament and will be hard-pressed to do it this year. Cincinnati extended him last year through 2028-29 and is now paying him an average of nearly $3 million per year. The Bearcats are unlikely to cut bait, but they must feel like treading water.
Dixon has done things at TCU that no coach has ever done, including four NCAA Tournaments and two NCAA Tournament wins. The Horned Frogs have never been this consistently good. But his teams have never won double-digit Big 12 games in a season, and he needs a big winning streak to get to the NCAA Tournament. He’s extended through 2030. He has a relatively new boss in athletic director Mike Buddie.
I think all three get the benefit of the doubt, but they’re worth watching if their seasons fall apart down the stretch.
The $18.5 Million Question at Kansas State
Jerome Tang, Kansas State
If the buyout weren’t issue, he’d be done. But it’s a huge issue. If you don’t like math, here’s the breakdown.
Jerome Tang’s contract is now a cautionary tale in the NIL/transfer portal era. After leading Kansas State to a 26-win season in 2022-23 that got the program to the Elite Eight, he received that massive extension with the poison pill buyout, which was supposed to chase off poaching programs. Well, now it’s just poison. The Wildcats have won fewer games in each of Tang’s last two seasons, and they’re pointed toward a worse season after a 10-12 start.
It may be worse than the record. His current team looks directionless, and the program looks as if it has no philosophy. He did himself no favors last weekend by saying he didn’t owe fans any explanation until March. It’s fair to ask if he lasts beyond that.
If athletic director Gene Taylor can find a booster or two willing to take the edge off the buyout, he might just pull the trigger. Otherwise? It’s hard to see him firing Tang, eating the $18.5 million and hiring a new coach, as warranted as it might be to the fan base. But it’s hard to recall an AD that guessed this wrong on a coach after his first year. Maybe Matt Doherty at North Carolina? He only lasted three years.
