The stage is officially set for the 2025 NCAA tournament following the Selection Sunday reveal.
The Big 12 has a handful of teams in the field for the Big Dance, coming in as the third-best represented conference in all of college basketball. No conference has as many teams in the March Madness field as the SEC, from which 14 of the conference's 16 teams got into the tournament. That means more than 20% of the field will be from the SEC.
We'll take a look at how many teams from the Big 12 got into the tournament.
Total Big 12 Teams in the NCAA Tournament
The 2025 NCAA tournament will include seven Big 12 teams. That's slightly less than in 2024 when the conference sent eight teams to the big dance.
Among the Big 12 teams in the field this year are Houston, Texas Tech, BYU, Arizona, Iowa State, Kansas and Baylor. It can certainly be argued that West Virginia was worthy of a spot in the tournament, but they were left on the outside looking in among the crop of bubble teams this year.
With seven teams in the NCAA tournament, only the Big Ten (8) and SEC (14) are better represented than the Big 12. Last season, the Big 12 was tied with the SEC for the most teams in the tournament with eight.
Big 12 Teams & Their Tournament Seeds
Despite earning a No. 1 seed, Houston could have some difficulty advancing to the Sweet Sixteen, with a potentially tough matchup awaiting in the round of 32, where they'll face either Georgia or Gonzaga. Both teams are formidable and figure to be anything but an easy task for the Cougars. Houston is also looking at potential showdowns against Purdue and Tennessee in their side of the bracket.
Texas Tech could find themselves in position to make a deep run in the tournament, set to play UNC Wilmington followed by the winner of Missouri vs. Drake. Meanwhile, Iowa State could be in some trouble due to the injury sustained by Keshon Gilbert.
How Big 12 Has Performed in Recent NCAA Tournaments
The last time a Big 12 team has won the NCAA tournament was in 2022 when the Kansas Jayhawks won it all. The conference had a winner in 2021, too, as Baylor won its lone national championship that season.
Last year with eight representatives, the Big 12 won seven games in NCAA tournament play. In 2023, there were seven Big 12 teams in the fold and the conference won nine games in the Big Dance. The conference boasted an impressive 13-5 record in 2022 when Kansas won the national championship and the Big 12 went 11-6 in 2021 when Baylor became tournament winners.
In total, the Big 12 has won five NCAA tournaments; 2008, 2021 and 2022, as well as in 1952 and 1988 when the conference was still called the Big 8.
Accounting for the recent shift in NCAA conferences in recent years, there have been nine tournament winners by teams that are currently in the Big 12, including 1944, 1945, 1946, 1952, 1988, 1997, 2008, 2021 and 2022.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Many Big 12 Teams Made the NCAA Tournament?.
