The reality of BYU’s venture into the Big 12 is starting to become clear. This could be a slog for a while. The football team is struggling to gain traction in the league, and now the outlook for the basketball team looks like more of the same.
Have you seen the Big 12 preseason basketball rankings by the league’s coaches? It’s bad.
How bad?
As in, there’s pretty much only one way to go from here, if this prediction is accurate.
Moving down the rankings list, looking for BYU … 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (be patient), 7, 8, 9 (still with us?), 11, 12, 13 — bingo. BYU has been picked to finish 13th out of 14 schools. Only Central Florida finished worse.
BYU better hope this poll is waaay off.
Then again, the Cougars were picked to finish 11th in the preseason football rankings, and they currently are in a three-way tie for 10th. So there’s that. All four of the schools who joined the league this year occupy four of the bottom five places in the current football standings and have a combined conference record of 2-10.
If you thought the Big 12 was good in football, wait’ll you see the basketball competition. Many consider it to be the best basketball conference in the country. What the SEC is to football, the Big 12 is to basketball, although the Big Ten might have something to say about that. As mentioned here previously, the Big 12 put seven teams in the NCAA Tournament last year for the seventh time in 12 years. It has qualified six or more teams for that tournament 19 times in 26 years.
The Big 12 office bragged it up this way, “The Big 12 has captured (two of the last three) national championships … (Big 12) teams have played in the last four Final Fours and the last three national championship games.”
Anyway, the Cougars are in the same spot they were at the end of last season, when they ranked behind 13 Big 12 schools in the Sagarin Ratings. Three of the four schools who joined the Big 12 this year are among the bottom four in the coaches’ preseason rankings — Cincinnati (11th, BYU (13th) and Central Florida (14th). The coaches are essentially telling the new kids on the block, show us what you got first. Houston, the fourth newcomer, is picked to finish second, which is what a 33-4 record from a year ago will get you.
The Cougars aren’t even the best Cougars in the Big 12.
The Cougars (of BYU, not Houston) are a long way from the West Coast Conference, where they finished second or third annually until the last two years, when they slipped to fifth. Their timing for the Big 12 jump could have been better. They are coming off their worst season (19-15) in 18 years and are a dozen years removed from their last conference championship.
On the other hand, they have never failed to follow a poor or mediocre season with a better season during the last 25 years — from 12-16 in 1998-99 to 22-11. From 18-12 in 2001-02 to 23-9. From 9-21 in 2004-05 to 20-9. From 19-13 in 2018-19 to 24-8.
But it will be difficult to top 19 wins this season, considering the competition. This is what the Cougars are up against in their first Big 12 season:
• Kansas — Four national championships — seventh most in history — 15 Final Four appearances, second winningest college basketball program ever (behind Kentucky), ranked No. 1 in the nation in this season’s AP preseason poll. In 2020, CBS selected Kansas as the fifth best basketball program of all time.
• Oklahoma State — Two national championships, one runner-up title, six Final Fours. CBS selected Oklahoma State as the 25th best basketball program of all time.
• Baylor — The 2021 national champions.
• Houston — Six Final Fours, 10th most among all schools, ranked No. 7 in the AP preseason poll.
• Cincinnati — Two national championships, six Final Fours, 12th winningest college basketball program ever. CBS selected Cincinnati as the 10th best basketball program of all time.
• Texas — Three Final Four appearances, 12th winningest program ever.
• Kansas State — Four Final Four appearances.
• West Virginia — Two Final Four appearances, the last one in 2010.
• Oklahoma — Five Final Fours — the last one in 2016 — nine Elite Eights.
• West Virginia – 20th winningest program ever.
BYU can boast three appearances in the Elite Eight and the 17th most wins ever. That’s about it. This fall, the Cougars will begin the difficult challenge of competing in the Big 12.
