Steve Lutz had an appropriate response when he scanned OSU’s Big 12 schedule for the first time.
“Holy smokes,” Lutz thought.
Of course, the former Western Kentucky coach knew what he signed up for in taking the Oklahoma State job, but seeing a three-game stretch of at Kansas, vs. Iowa State, at Baylor — which the Cowboys will face in late February/early March — still shocks the senses.
“Hey, I have a top-five team at home, then I go on the road for two, and I come back and there’s a top-10 team coming here,” Lutz said before the season started. “But everybody in the league is saying that. That’s why we do this, right? Play in the best league in the country.”
We’re so conditioned to accept that as gospel. The Big 12 is the best conference in men’s college basketball.
Only it isn’t. Not through the first month and change of the season.
That title belongs to the SEC. Being the best in college football and baseball, and now softball and women’s basketball, apparently isn’t enough. The deep-pocketed SEC is coming for the Big 12’s men’s hoops crown, too.
More: Where is OU basketball freshman Jeremiah Fears ranked for 2025 NBA Draft?
Take Bedlam, for example, which will tip-off at 7 p.m. Saturday at Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City.
It will be a matchup of the SEC’s 12th-best team against the Big 12’s 15th, according to KenPom.com, the preeminent college basketball ratings website.
But try to figure this math: KenPom has OU as the No. 12 team in the SEC while the Associated Press has the Sooners (9-0) as the No. 13 team in the nation.
The reality is probably somewhere in between. While pollsters prop up the Sooners for having a zero in the loss column, KenPom docks OU for ranking 345th (out of 364 Division I programs) in strength of schedule.
OU is No. 44 overall in KenPom. OSU (6-2) is No. 83.
Auburn and Tennessee are Nos. 1 and 2 in KenPom. Alabama is seventh, Florida eighth and Kentucky ninth. So half of the top-10 teams hail from the SEC. The Big 12 has two top-10 teams in No. 5 Houston and No. 6 Iowa State.
At No. 66, South Carolina is the SEC’s lowest-ranked team. That’s still higher, though, than five Big 12 teams: Kansas State (70th), Colorado (77th), UCF (81st), OSU (83rd) and TCU (91st).
The average rating among the 16 Big 12 teams? Forty-fifth. And for the SEC? Thirty-first.
Big 12 men’s basketball power rankings: Surging Iowa State takes top position from Kansas
In the last 10 NCAA Tournaments, six SEC teams have advanced to the Final Four (2024 Alabama, 2019 Auburn, 2017 South Carolina, 2015 Kentucky and 2014 Kentucky and Florida). No SEC team has won the national title since Anthony Davis’ 2012 Wildcats.
In that same span, five Big 12 teams have advanced to the Final Four (2022 Kansas, 2021 Baylor, 2019 Texas Tech, 2018 Kansas, 2016 Oklahoma). The Big 12 won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and ‘22 with Baylor and Kansas.
Auburn is the early favorite to win the national title this season — it would be the first in program history — but records and rankings in December mean nothing compared to the madness March brings.
For now, though, the SEC reigns supreme. And with conference play right around the corner, Sooner coach Porter Moser must be looking at OU’s schedule and thinking the same thing Lutz was a few months back.
“Holy smokes.”
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Sorry Big 12, SEC is the best conference in men’s college basketball
