Big 12 men's basketball: February schedule is absolutely loaded thanks to smart planning and good fortune

Arizona's multi-week gauntlet has only just begun. The showdown at Kansas on Big Monday, which turned into the Wildcats' first loss of the season, was the first of six dates with ranked opponents in 22 days. But the Wildcats aren't walking through the Big 12's valley of brutality alone.

Iowa State might trade places given what the Cyclones are about to encounter.

Houston is bracing for three hellacious games in eight days.

And Kansas, after navigating a barrage of ranked opponents, will have a whopping two-game respite before diving back into the steel cage.

"I just realized that there is a @KUHoops at @ArizonaMBB rematch on February 28th," ESPN analyst Fran Frachilla wrote on the social media platform X earlier this week. "The top of the @Big12Conference is the NBA Western Conference playoffs."

It's almost like the Big 12 purposely back-loaded the schedule with marquee matchups.

(Narrator voice: That's exactly what the Big 12 did.)

"When does basketball typically get the most eyeballs? It's post-Super Bowl," Brian Thornton, the Big 12's vice president for men's basketball, told the Hotline earlier this week.

"We take the viewpoint of what our TV partners want. What matchups are they looking for?"

The Big 12 has five TV partners: The core two, ESPN and Fox, plus CBS, TNT and Peacock. And they all want premier matchups, particularly in February, when the Super Bowl is the lone football game.

Fortunately for the networks, the Big 12 has enough first-class inventory to go around.

Expectations were high for Houston, BYU, Texas Tech, Arizona, Iowa State and Kansas in September, when the Big 12 released the 2025-26 conference schedule. All six appeared in the AP preseason poll a month later, and all six are ranked this week.

The Big 12's remarkable hit rate — the SEC also placed six teams in the AP preseason poll, but just three remain ranked — resulted in a stellar lineup of games during college basketball's time in the spotlight.

"We don't know what teams will look like because there's so much (roster) turnover," Thornton said. "It's impossible to predict how good teams will be. But we rely on some historical context to help."

Where foresight and fortune intersect, you get this otherworldly late-season lineup for ESPN's 'Big Monday' broadcast (rankings as of this week):

• 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

All in all, the Big 12 scheduled 20 matchups between the six programs that appeared in the AP preseason poll. Of those, 17 were slotted into the six-week sweet spot in late January, February and early March — the window between the NFL's conference championship weekend and the start of the Big 12 tournament.

"Our TV partners have matchups they prefer and dates that need filling," Thornton said. "Certain dates are hard-wired into the schedule. Then we make everything else work."

That process is preposterously complicated.

The first step unfolds in the late spring, after the transfer portal has settled and NBA draft decisions are set, when the Big 12 announces the opponent rotation for each team.

With 18 conference games this season — there were 20 last year — each team plays every opponent once and three opponents twice. Those are the so-called two-play matchups, some of which occur annually (e.g., Arizona vs. Arizona State or BYU vs. Utah). Competitive balance and travel equity are the cornerstones of the process.

Once the opponent rotation is set, it takes several months to piece together the schedule itself. Thornton and his team examine roughly 100 versions spit out by the computer. Many are discarded immediately because they don't meet certain requirements, particularly those involving rest equity. Teams are not allowed to play three road games in a row, for example. Also, Big Monday participants don't play again until the following weekend.

Additional requests and restrictions from the schools must be considered, as well.

Many coaches prefer to play two road games when forced to take a long trip. (Might as well kill two birds with one 2,000-mile flight, right?)

Arena availability is a factor.

Same with the availability of officials.

Eventually, a master schedule is produced and approved.

"My view," Thornton said, "is that if nobody's happy, then we've done a pretty decent job. The schedule process is an inexact science."

It's an inexact science with preferences and parameters and a distinct tilt to the back end of the regular season.

Arizona plays seven games against the Big 12's other ranked teams, with all but one (at BYU) slotted into February and March.

"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.'"

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