The Big 12 is already setting its sights on a bigger piece of March Madness.
With the NCAA Tournament expanding to 76 teams beginning with the 2026-27 season, the league believes its standard should move with it. According to a new CBS report from Matt Norlander, the conference is looking to make 10 bids a yearly expectation - and one Big 12 official put that goal plainly.
Brian Thornton, the Big 12’s associate commissioner to Brett Yormark and the league’s chief basketball officer, said the conference wants to be in the mix for double-digit bids on a regular basis.
“We’ve done a nice job and had eight teams in the tournament [two of the last three years], but with additional teams participating, we want to be hitting double digits annually,” Thornton told CBS Sports. “To do that, we will have to increase the size of our bubble.”
That’s the new reality the Big 12 is preparing for. Eight additional spots are opening up across college basketball, and the league clearly sees an opportunity to claim a bigger share of them.
The timing lines up with a conference that once again looks loaded. Arizona center Motiejus Krivas, Texas Tech frontcourt general JT Toppin and incoming Kansas freshman shooter Tyran Stokes are among the names giving the Big 12 another strong headlining group as the season draws closer.
The league has already been a consistent force in the bracket, placing eight teams in the field - a mark it had never exceeded. West Virginia, Cincinnati and UCF were on the bubble, while outside the conference, Oklahoma and New Mexico were viewed as snubs from very different corners of the college basketball map.
Now the Big 12 is betting that the next step is not just possible, but expected.
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