Big 12 Releases 2026-27 Basketball Schedule: Five Top Games — SkimNews
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- Big 12 released its full 2026-27 conference basketball schedule on Thursday, naming five marquee games: Arizona-Texas Tech (Jan. 22), Kansas-BYU (Jan. 9), Iowa State-Houston (Jan. 13), BYU-Arizona (Jan. 12), and Arizona-Houston (March 6).
- Arizona enters the season as the Big 12 favorite after reaching the 2026 Final Four — its first since 2001 — and coach Tommy Lloyd signed an extension after turning down the North Carolina job during Final Four week.
- Texas Tech's Darrion Williams, who transferred from NC State after last year's Elite Eight run, and Donovan Atwell face pending eligibility rulings tied to five-for-five lawsuits, while star forward JT Toppin is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in mid-February.
- Houston — which won back-to-back Big 12 regular-season titles in 2024 and 2025 — added transfers Dedan Thomas Jr. (LSU), Delrecco Gillespie (Kent State), Corey Hadnot II (Purdue Fort Wayne), and Chendall Weaver (Texas), whose eligibility for this season remains pending.
- Eight Big 12 teams reached the 2026 NCAA Tournament, and with the field expanding to 76 teams this season, the conference is targeting at least 10 bids for 2027.
- Iowa State lost top 3-point shooter Milan Momcilovic to Kentucky via transfer, is without defender Killyan Toure until the new year after shoulder surgery, and is awaiting an injunction for fifth-season eligibility for Tamin Lipsey.
Why it matters: The Big 12 enters 2026-27 as arguably the deepest conference in college basketball, with four teams in Gary Parrish's Top 25 and 1 and eight NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago. The 76-team expansion makes the league's stated target of 10-plus bids more achievable, but every marquee game on this schedule hinges on a wave of unresolved eligibility cases — Williams, Atwell, Weaver, and Lipsey — without which the Jan. 22 Arizona-Texas Tech matchup loses significant stakes.
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