The Big 12 Conference released the men’s basketball scheduling matchups for the 2024-25 season on Thursday, the first season with 16 teams.
Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah join the Big 12 in August and will play their first basketball season with Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.
While the game dates and times will be released later this year, here are five thoughts about the matchups that were released.
THE FORMAT
With a 20-game schedule, the projected format is what came to pass. Each team will play 20 games, with each team playing five opponents at home and on the road, five opponents only at home and five opponents only on the road.
This will be the first time the league has played a 20-game conference season. Last year with 14 teams, and for the last decade with 10 teams, the league played 18 games. With the departure of the Big 12-SEC Challenge, the league needs an additional league game or two to reinforce its NCAA NET rating.
The days of the double round-robin are long gone.
GEOGRAPHY MATTERS (KIND OF)
The Big 12 took geography into account in some ways, especially when it came to the home-and-road matchups.
For instance, Arizona State will play three teams home-and-road that are within the Mountain time zone — Arizona, BYU and Colorado.
Kansas will get home-and-road games with Iowa State and Kansas State along with renewing its rivalry with Colorado.
Texas Tech will do home-and-road with Arizona, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Houston and TCU.
But, in other ways it didn’t matter as much. For instance, BYU has a home-and-road with both Cincinnati and West Virginia. The Cougars are the only Mountain time zone team with a home-and-road with two Eastern time zone teams.
FUN HOME-ONLY MATCHUPS
Arizona gets Houston at home, which should be a great game between two teams that could be in the preseason Top 10. Baylor only gets Kansas once and that game will be in Waco. Cincinnati got a great home-only schedule, getting both Arizona schools at home, along with Kansas.
Houston’s best home-only game is Iowa State, while Iowa State’s best home-only game should be Baylor. TCU will get a bump in attendance at home with games in Fort Worth against both Kansas and Kansas State. West Virginia managed to get both Arizona schools at home for Darian DeVries’ first season.
FUN ROAD-ONLY MATCHUPS
Arizona has to go to both Kansas and Kansas State in its first season, and both games should be Big Monday or Super Tuesday games. First-year BYU coach Kevin Young has to take the Cougars into Houston for what could be a really good matchup. The same goes for Cincinnati, which has a road-only matchup with Houston.
Along with going to Arizona, Houston also has to go to Kansas State, and given the Wildcats’ work in the transfer portal that could be a great game. TCU will have to dig in and go to Houston while Utah drew a rough road-only schedule with Arizona, Houston and Iowa State.
THE PERFECT WEEKEND
If we’re taking these matchups and trying to piece together a perfect weekend of Big 12 basketball, eight games that would keep you glued to your TV all day, here’s what they could put together:
Houston at Arizona
Kansas State at Kansas
Baylor at Iowa State
Arizona State at Texas Tech
TCU at Baylor
Cincinnati at BYU
UCF at Colorado
Oklahoma State at West Virginia
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
