Big 12, SEC expansion, realignment posed to make conferences stronger in men’s basketball

A lot has been made of college football conference expansion and the impact it will have on the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and ACC in the upcoming season.

But it will also have a big impact on many other sports, including shaking up the men’s college basketball landscape.

The Big 12 and the SEC currently looked poised to benefit the most from the new additions in its conferences in the 2024-25 college basketball season.

According to ESPN’s March Madness projections, the Big 12 currently has nine teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament later this month, the most of any conference (the SEC has seven).

Pac-12 Tournament picks: USC vs. Washington | Stanford vs. California | Oregon State vs. UCLA | Arizona State vs. Utah | The Republic’s predictions | Schedule, TV information | Pac-12 Championship odds

Big 12 could have big impact on NCAA Tournament this year … and next

The NCAA Tournament projections for the Big 12 this year?

Houston is projected to be a No. 1 seed by ESPN, Iowa State a No. 2, Baylor a No. 3, Kansas a No. 4, BYU a No. 5, Texas Tech a No. 7, Texas a No. 8, Oklahoma a No. 9 and TCU a No. 10.

That’s a lot of teams in the NCAA Tournament.

The Pac-12 currently has just three teams scheduled to make March Madness this month, with Arizona a No. 2 seed, Washington State a No. 6 and Colorado a No. 11.

Two of those teams are among the four teams scheduled to join the Big 12 next season, however, as Arizona, Colorado, Arizona State and Utah are set to join the conference in 2024-25, so the conference would still have nine tournament teams if next season’s lineup of Big 12 teams was playing this season (Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC in basketball next season).

Not too shabby.

Will the Big 12 be the dominant conference in college basketball in 2025?

More: When is 2024 Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament? Bracket, TV…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/big-12-sec-expansion-realignment-221954024.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2024-03-11 22:19:54

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