Teams from the Big 12 Conference have once again flooded the bubble in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update, though this time, things have changed a bit.
Lunardi placed six Big 12 teams squarely in the mix for at-large bids, though he elected to flip one team out that was on the bubble last week, for a fellow Big 12 team that wasn’t on the bubble prior.
A LOOK AT THE BUBBLE
UCF still sits in the Last Four Byes category, which isn’t a huge change for them, though they are inching closer and closer to being safely in the tournament field and not on the bubble. They are technically the first team in the Last Four Byes tier, which could change very soon with a few more wins.
Just behind them are the TCU Horned Frogs, who remained in the Last Four In tier. They’re still eyeing a trip to Dayton for the play-in games in this hypothetical, which isn’t ideal, but they have a shot, and that’s more than others can say.
Outside the field but still within reach are four more Big 12 programs: the West Virginia Mountaineers, Cincinnati Bearcats, Baylor Bears, and the fourth team being where the change occurred. West Virginia and Baylor have been trying for weeks to break through into the Field of 68, while Cincinnati recently came back from the dead with its win streak and upset over Kansas at home.
THE CHANGE
The biggest thing of note for the Big 12 was Lunardi dropping Steve Lutz’s Oklahoma State Cowboys in favor of the Arizona State Sun Devils, a team no one thought would get here at this point in the season. ASU is interesting to see here, to say the least, as they sit at 14-13 overall with a conference record of 5-9 to boot. The biggest selling point for them is their upset win over No. 13 Texas Tech, which helped them earn some love from the bracket guru himself.
What’s next remains to be seen. Could all six find a way into the tournament field? Probably not, but you can’t ask for much better than a fight into March for the regular-season title at the top of the league, and a fight on the bubble for everyone else. That’s just life in the Big 12, folks; it always matters.
With six teams in the bubble conversation, the Big 12 is poised to play a significant role in shaping the back end of the bracket over the next few weeks.
