The Big 12 Conference has long been celebrated for being one of the strongest leagues when it comes to men’s basketball.

However, the landscape of college basketball shifted this past season as the Big 12 found itself overshadowed by the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten. The league managed to secure just seven bids to the NCAA tournament while the SEC set a record by sending 14 teams to the tournament.

In response, the Big 12 is working to enhance its non-conference schedules. By doing so, the conference aims to improve its standing and increase its chances of receiving NCAA tournament invitations — all with the hopes of reclaiming its place at the forefront of college basketball’s elite.

“Non-conference scheduling is more important than ever before,” Brian Thornton, vice president of Big 12 men’s basketball, said during the league’s spring business meetings in Orlando on Wednesday. “We spent considerable time today talking about the importance of it. We talked about how successful this league has been, from a basketball standpoint, as something that we do and we’re doing the very best over the last 10 years. So to stay on that path, we want to maximize bids and maximize seeds, and non-conference scheduling is a huge component of that.”

Five teams ranked in the top 25 in non-conference strength of schedule led by Houston (2), Arizona (5), Baylor (8), Kansas (11) and Iowa State (24). Four more teams rounded out the top 50: Texas Tech (33), BYU (34), Arizona State (39) and West Virginia (50).

The SEC, meanwhile, had 11 teams ranked in the top 50, followed by nine teams from the Big Ten.

UCF was No. 58 in its non-conference strength of schedule last season, finishing with a 9-2 mark, including a win over then-No. 6 Texas A&M to start the season.

“If you look at our preseason schedule over the years, we’ve always played a very competitive schedule, and that’s by design,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We want to play these teams. It prepares us for conference play and puts us in the conversation for the postseason every year because of that ability to do that.”

To strengthen its non-conference scheduling, the Big 12 has reverted to an 18-game conference schedule — down from 20 games — starting in the 2025-26 season.

“We spent considerable time talking about the importance of replacing those games with quality games that allow our conference to continue to thrive, understanding that each of our teams has their own needs based on where they are in the process,” Thornton said.

He pointed out that the SEC plays an 18-game conference schedule while the Big Ten has moved to a 20-game schedule.

“There’s a variety of ways to do it. There are many ways to skin a cat,” he added. “But what we do know is what our conference does during the non-conference scheduling time is really what sets the stage for how strong our conference is going to be overall.

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“Playing 20 games is challenging, especially in a league like ours. There were no built-in byes in that schedule. When you’re playing in a league as challenging as ours, understandably, our coaches wanted a little bit of an opportunity during conference play to take a deep breath, and going to 18 games allows that.”

Added Dawkins: “I’m looking forward to going to 18 games. Last year, starting after the New Year and with no bye weeks, we played a grueling schedule in the Big 12 the way we did, beating each other up night in and night out. That’s tough. It will be good to give our guys a bye week.”

The move back to 18 games alters some of the scheduling dynamics, with each team set to face three conference opponents twice — once at home and once away.

“That’s something that we’re currently going through the process of working through right now; within the next week to 10 days, we should have that completed,” Thornton explained. “There’s a lot of things that go into that, too. You must consider rivalries, geography and television, as they certainly have an impact. And then there’s competitive equity. We’re trying to put all those things into a pot and stir it up and come up with a reasonable set of match-ups that allow all of our institutions to be successful but also create made-for-TV opportunities our TV partners want to see as well.”

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