Postseason basketball has arrived, as has a new Big 12 Championship format.
By increasing its membership to 16 teams for the 2024-2025 season, the Big 12 set itself up for big changes. Those changes take the spotlight at the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship this week.
Five top 25 programs will play at the Big 12 Championship this year. In order, No. 8 TCU, No. 17 Baylor, No. 21 Oklahoma State, No. 16 West Virginia, and No. 20 Kansas State hold the top five seeds in the bracket.
With the new format, though, none of these teams will play in the tournament’s first round on Wednesday. Just four games will take place in the opening round, something that will stay consistent through the bracket’s quarterfinals.
New Bracket Structure
All 16 Big 12 teams will compete in the Big 12 Championship in some capacity. To incentivize regular season success, several teams will automatically advance past the early rounds, resulting in a five-round bracket.
Each of the top eight seeds receive first-round byes, while teams seeded nine through 16 compete. Higher seeds of these eight take on the corresponding lower seed as though the games were the first of an eight-team bracket.
Winners advance to play in the second round, where they will play one of seeds five through eight. Winners in this round advance to the quarterfinals to play one of the top four seeds. The full game schedule is as follows:
First Round – Wednesday, March 5
Game 1 – No. 12 BYU vs. No. 13 UCF – 11 a.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 2 – No. 9 Colorado vs. No. 16 Houston – 1:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 3 – No. 10 Cincinnati vs. No. 15 Arizona State – 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 4 – No. 11 Kansas vs. No. 14 Texas Tech – 8 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Second Round – Thursday, March 6
Game 5 – No. 5 Kansas State vs. Winner of Game 1 – 11 a.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 6 – No. 8 Arizona vs. Winner of Game 2 – 1:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 7 – No. 7 Iowa State vs. Winner of Game 3 – 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 8 – No. 6 Utah vs. Winner of Game 4 – 8 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Quarterfinals – Friday, March 7
Game 9 – No. 4 West Virginia vs. Winner of Game 5 – 11 a.m. CT, ESPNU
Game 10 – No. 1 TCU vs. Winner of Game 6 – 1:30 p.m. CT, ESPNU
Game 11 – No. 2 Baylor vs. Winner of Game 7 – 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 12 – No. 3 Oklahoma State vs. Winner of Game 8 – 8 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Semifinals – Saturday, March 8
Game 13 – Winner of Game 9 vs. Winner of Game 10 – 3 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 14 – Winner of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 12 – 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Final – Sunday, March 9*
Game 15 – Winner of Game 13 vs. Winner of Game 14 – 4 p.m. CT, ESPN
*Should BYU advance to the Championship the game will be played Monday, March 10.
Schedule Courtesy of the Big 12 Conference
Current Conference Standings:
As always, a team’s record against Big 12 Conference opponents takes precedent in Big 12 Championship seeding over a team’s overall record. Tie-breakers resulted in the following seeding:
- TCU (16-2, 28-3)
- Baylor (15-3, 25-6)
- Oklahoma State (14-4, 24-5)
- West Virginia (13-5, 23-6)
- Kansas State (13-5, 25-6)
- Utah (13-5, 22-7)
- Iowa State (12-6, 21-10)
- Arizona (10-8, 19-12)
- Colorado (9-9, 18-11)
- Cincinnati (7-11, 15-13)
- Kansas (6-12, 16-13)
- BYU (4-14, 13-16)
- UCF (4-14, 11-17)
- Texas Tech (4-14, 15-16)
- Arizona State (3-15, 9-21)
- Houston (1-17, 5-24)
The Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship kicks off at noon ET on Wednesday as UCF takes on BYU. The game will be available on ESPN+.
Photo by Tanner Mountz, Blue Gold Sports
