The NCAA Tournament is set for 2026 and eight Big 12 teams have punched their ticket to March Madness. Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech, TCU, BYU and UCF are all going dancing this year as the Field of 68 is set.
Last season, the Big 12 Conference had seven bids, with the Houston Cougars reaching the 2025 NCAA Tournament Championship where they lost to the Florida Gators. The SEC led the way with 14 bids last season, six more than the Big Ten and seven more than the Big 12.
Big 12 Teams Seeds and Opponents
The Arizona Wildcats are the No. 1 seed in the West Region, as expected, after winning the Big 12 Tournament. Arizona will take on No. 16 seed LIU on Friday. BYU is also in the West Region, as a No. 6 seed. BYU will take on No. 11 seed Texas or NC State on Thursday.
Around the rest of the bracket, the Kansas Jayhawks are the No. 4 seed in the East Region. Also in the East Region, the Big 12 has three teams. UCF landed as a No. 10 seed. UCF will take on No. 7 seed UCLA. Elsewhere, TCU is the No. 9 seed in the region. TCU will take on No. 8 seed Ohio State.
Meantime, in the Midwest Region, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are picked as a No. 5 seed. Texas Tech will take on No. 12 seed Akron on Friday in Tampa Bay, Florida. Iowa State is a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region. They will take on No. 15 seed Tennessee State on Friday.
In the South Regional, the Houston Cougars are the No. 2 seed, and they’ll take on No. 15 Idaho on Thursday.
How to Watch the NCAA Tournament
Watching this year’s NCAA Tournament is once again shaping up to be one of the most exciting stretches on the sports calendar. The 2026 edition of March Madness begins with Selection Sunday on March 15, when the 68-team field is revealed, followed by the “First Four” games in Dayton on March 17–18 and the main bracket tipping off shortly after. Teams from across the country battle through a single-elimination format where every possession can decide a season, creating the upsets, buzzer-beaters, and Cinderella stories that define the tournament. Games will be broadcast across CBS and TNT Sports networks, allowing fans to follow all 67 matchups as the field narrows to the Final Four and ultimately the national championship on April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
2025 NCAA Tournament Recap
The 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, played in March and early April 2025, ended with the Florida Gators winning the national championship, defeating the Houston Cougars 65–63 in a dramatic title game at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Florida rallied from a 12-point deficit late in the second half, completing one of the most memorable comebacks of the tournament. Guard Walter Clayton Jr. was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after leading Florida through a tough bracket that included wins over UConn, Maryland, Texas Tech, and Auburn. The Final Four featured Florida, Houston, Auburn, and Duke, with Houston beating Duke and Florida knocking off Auburn to reach the championship game. Florida’s victory gave the program its third national title and first since 2007, capping a tournament filled with buzzer-beaters, upsets, and late-game drama typical of March Madness.
NCAA Tournament History
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, commonly known as March Madness, began in 1939 with just eight teams competing for a national championship. The first tournament was won by Oregon, which defeated Ohio State in the title game. Over the decades, the event steadily expanded—growing to 16 teams in 1951, 32 teams in 1975, and eventually to the 68-team format used today, which was introduced in 2011 with the addition of the “First Four.” The tournament’s single-elimination format has produced some of the most iconic moments in sports history, including buzzer-beaters, Cinderella runs by underdog programs, and legendary performances from stars like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. Today, the NCAA Tournament is one of the biggest sporting events in the United States, drawing massive television audiences and becoming a cultural phenomenon each spring as millions of fans fill out brackets hoping to predict the chaos of March Madness.
