The Big 12 isn't just embracing the chaos this season - it's orchestrating it.
Arizona’s trip to Kansas on Big Monday was more than just a top-10 clash - it was the opening salvo in what might be the most brutal three-week stretch of the college basketball season. That loss marked the Wildcats’ first of the year, and it was only the beginning.
Over the next 22 days, Arizona will face five more ranked opponents. That’s not a conference schedule - that’s a gauntlet.
But the Wildcats aren’t the only ones navigating this minefield. Iowa State is about to run its own version of the Big 12 obstacle course.
Houston? The Cougars are staring down three heavyweight bouts in just eight days.
And Kansas, after surviving a relentless run of ranked matchups, gets a brief two-game breather before diving right back into the fire.
This isn’t a coincidence. It’s by design.
As Big 12 Vice President for Men’s Basketball Brian Thornton put it: “When does basketball typically get the most eyeballs? It’s post-Super Bowl.” That’s when the NFL fades and college hoops steps into the national spotlight - and the Big 12 is making sure it delivers must-watch basketball when the stage is biggest.
The conference’s TV partners - ESPN, Fox, CBS, TNT and Peacock - all want marquee matchups in that window between the NFL’s conference championships and the start of March Madness. And the Big 12 has the star power to deliver.
Back in September, when the Big 12 released its 2025-26 schedule, expectations were sky-high for six programs: Arizona, Kansas, Houston, Iowa State, Texas Tech and BYU. A month later, all six landed in the AP preseason poll. Fast forward to now, and all six are still ranked - a rarity in today’s volatile college basketball landscape.
That kind of consistency has created a dream scenario for networks: a packed schedule of ranked-on-ranked matchups during the heart of the season. While the SEC also placed six teams in the AP preseason poll, only half remain ranked. The Big 12, meanwhile, hit the jackpot.
The result? A murderers’ row of late-season showdowns, including these heavyweight clashes (current rankings listed):
- **No. 9 Kansas at No.
16 Texas Tech**
- **No.
1 Arizona at No. 9 Kansas**
- **No. 3 Houston at No.
5 Iowa State**
- **No.
3 Houston at No. 9 Kansas**
- **No. 5 Iowa State at No.
1 Arizona**
In total, the Big 12 scheduled 20 games between those six preseason-ranked teams. Seventeen of them fall in the six-week sweet spot from late January through early March - prime time for college hoops.
But getting to that point? It’s a scheduling puzzle with hundreds of moving pieces.
The process begins in late spring, once the transfer portal has settled and NBA draft decisions are finalized. That’s when the Big 12 announces its opponent rotation - each team plays every conference foe once, with three “two-play” matchups (home and away).
Some of those are locked in annually - think Arizona vs. Arizona State or BYU vs.
Utah - but the rest are built around competitive balance and travel equity.
From there, it gets even more complex. Thornton and his team run through roughly 100 computer-generated schedule models. Most are tossed out immediately for failing to meet basic requirements - like avoiding three straight road games or ensuring proper rest for teams playing on ESPN’s Big Monday.
Then come the human variables: coaches’ preferences, arena availability, even the scheduling of officials. Some coaches, for instance, prefer to knock out two road games on a long trip rather than split them up.
Others want specific home dates for rivalry games or senior night. And of course, TV networks have their own wishlist - especially when it comes to high-profile matchups.
Eventually, a final version emerges. It’s not perfect - and it’s not supposed to be.
“My view is that if nobody’s happy, then we’ve done a pretty decent job,” Thornton said. “The schedule process is an inexact science.”
That “inexact science” just happens to have created one of the most compelling back halves of a college basketball season in recent memory.
Take Arizona. The Wildcats will play seven games against the Big 12’s other ranked teams.
Six of those are packed into February and March. Only one - a road trip to BYU - falls outside that window.
That’s not a coincidence either.
“A lot of it was just how the dominoes fell,” Thornton said. “We didn’t set out to do it specifically.
But Arizona is a big national brand. Kansas is a big national brand.
So where should we place Arizona-Kansas? Well, our partners would say, ‘We don’t want that game in January; we want it in February.’”
And that’s exactly what they got.
So while the players battle it out on the court, the Big 12’s schedule-makers are playing their own high-stakes game behind the scenes - one with a national audience, millions of dollars in TV contracts, and the entire college basketball world watching.
The result? A February slate that feels more like the NBA playoffs than a regular-season grind.
And if this is the new normal in the Big 12, fans better buckle up. The madness is starting early.