Jay Bilas calls Big 12 the best conference in college basketball

On3 imageby:Alex Weber•01/14/23

There is no debate. The Big 12 is by far the strongest college basketball conference in the country, with all 10 teams posing as serious threats to make the NCAA Tournament. Virtually every game in league play this year is a toss up because every team is capable of beating any of the others on a given night. So, even though defending champs Kansas are off to a hot start in January and are winners or co-winners of 16 of the last 18 Big 12 titles, a 2023 crown is far from certain.

On Saturday morning’s edition of College GameDay ahead of a packed slate of games, Jay Bilas assessed the incredible depth of the Big 12 this season but said he still sees Kansas as the top dog. Though the margin is much slimmer than in normal years.

Here was everything Bilas had to say regarding the Big 12:

“I think Kansas is the best team in the Big 12, but the Big 12 is the best league in the country top to bottom. And somebody explain that to me please, how there are only 10 teams in the Big 12? That sounds like false advertising. But all 10 teams are ranked in the national top 60 in all the analytics. So we’re looking at 10 teams that are worthy of NCAA consideration.

“I don’t think any other league, top to bottom, can match that, and they play a round robin schedule. So you gotta go back and forth and play at each team’s opposing arena. And that makes the league doubly difficult. So Kansas may be the best team, but they’re not head and shoulders above the crowd. We’re going to see everybody rack up some losses in this league and be tougher once they get to tournament time than maybe any other league except the SEC.”

Even the conference champion will suffer a handful of losses over the next couple months. That’s just the nature of this league, where every road game is going to be an absolute war, while none of the home games are walks in the park. Bilas says…just find a way to make it to the tournament, and that taxing conference slate will build backbone that can take you deep into March.