Big 12 Tournament 2026 Schedule and Men's Conference Bracketology Predictions

Every NCAA men's basketball conference tournament has the chance to be a thriller.

What's unique for the Big 12, though, is that it's almost guaranteed to be an all-timer.

There might be a few deeper-by-the-numbers conferences out there, but no other conference does high-end hooping quite like this. Arizona, Houston and Iowa State all hold top-eight rankings at KenPom. Texas Tech, Kansas and BYU all crack the top 25, too.

A tournament title must be earned, in other words, and there are at least a handful of teams capable of pulling that off. Maybe more given the whole madness aspect of March. This could should be incredible to watch.

Big 12 Tournament Schedule

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Tuesday, March 10

Game 1: No. 12 seed vs. No. 13 seed, 11:30 a.m. CT on ESPN+

Game 2: No. 9 seed vs. No. 16 seed, 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+

Game 3: No. 10 seed vs. No. 15 seed, 6 p.m. CT on ESPN+

Game 4: NO. 11 seed vs. No. 14 seed, 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN+

Wednesday, March 11

Game 5: No. 5 seed vs. Game 1 winner, 11:30 a.m. CT on ESPN/2

Game 6: No. 8 seed vs. Game 2 winner, 2 p.m. CT on ESPNU

Game 7: No. 7 seed vs. Game 3 winner, 6 p.m. CT on ESPNU

Game 8: No. 6 seed vs. Game 4 winner, 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2/U

Thursday, March 12

Game 9: No. 4 seed vs. Game 5 winner, 11:30 a.m. CT on ESPN/2

Game 10: No. 1 seed vs. Game 6 winner, 2 p.m. CT on ESPN/2

Game 11: No. 2 seed vs. Game 7 winner, 6 p.m. CT on ESPN/2

Game 12: No. 3 seed vs. Game 8 winner, 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN/2

Friday, March 13

Game 13: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 6 p.m. CT on ESPN/2

Game 14: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN/2

Saturday, March 14

Game 15: Game 13 winner vs. Game 14 winner, 5 p.m. CT on ESPN

Current Conference Standings

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No. 2 Arizona 15-2 (28-2)

No. 7 Houston 13-4 (25-5)

No. 10 Texas Tech 12-5 (22-8)

No. 6 Iowa State 11-6 (24-6)

No. 14 Kansas 11-6 (21-9)

TCU 10-7 (20-10)

UCF 9-8 (20-9)

Cincinnati 9-8 (17-13)

West Virginia 8-9 (17-13)

BYU 8-9 (20-10)

Colorado 7-10 (17-13)

Arizona State 7-10 (16-14)

Oklahoma State 6-11 (18-12)

Baylor 5-12 (15-15)

Kansas State 3-14 (12-18)

Utah 2-15 (10-20)

Bracketology

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Who's definitely in?

While these schools are still bouncing around seed lines a bit, their tickets to the real tournament are already in hand: Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Kansas and BYU. Arizona should be locked into a No. 1 seed, but the question is whether Iowa State can go on a conference tournament run and join Houston on the No. 2 seed line.

Who's about to sweat out Selection Sunday?

ESPN's Neil Paine has three Big 12 teams on the bubble: UCF, TCU and Cincinnati. While the Knights have the preferred "should be in" designation (an 86 percent chance based on Paine's model), the Horned Frogs and Bearcats both have "work to do."

The good news is those two teams have been acing all of their assignments of late. Cincinnati has won six of its last seven (four by 20-plus points) and is still the less-hot team, since TCU has won four straight and seven of its last eight.

The (potential) problem, though, is that both are up against the clock. There are legitimate worries that they may have dug themselves too deep a whole earlier this season to climb out of. Cincinnati had a losing record after 23 games, and TCU spiraled at the start of the calendar year with six losses in eight contests.

TCU's chances look better than Cincinnati's, but neither seems suited for a particularly comfortable Selection Sunday experience.