Arizona Wildcats Men’s Basketball Team Will Be Challenged in Big 12 Super Conference
The 2024-25 college basketball season will be the dawn of a new era for the Arizona Wildcats.
After spending 46 seasons as a member of the Pac-10/12, the school is now part of the Big 12 Conference. It is one of the super conferences in the nation after realignment created a 16-team behemoth.
Navigating their schedule this season will be difficult. There are a lot of good teams, evidenced by half of the preseason top 10 being Big 12 members. The Wildcats came in at No. 10, with the Kansas Jayhawks at No. 1, Houston Cougars at No. 4, Iowa State Cyclones at No. 5 and Baylor Bears at No. 9.
Coming in at No. 20 is the Cincinnati Bearcats, giving the Big 12 six teams ranked in the preseason. Only the SEC, who had eight schools, was ranked higher.
It was the Big 12 that took the No. 1 spot in the power conference rankings done by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
They are projected to have nine teams in the NCAA Tournament field in March, which is one less than the Big 10 and SEC. But, elite teams more than make up the difference.
The Big 12’s average seeding among their teams is 4.1. That blows away the 5.1 of the SEC, who came in at No. 2, and the Big 10, who was ranked fifth among the power conferences and had an average ranking of 7.6.
“But will the Big 12 continue trending up without Oklahoma and Texas? Arizona is a significant addition for 2024-25, comparable to Houston a year ago, so the onus will be on fellow newcomers Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to equal what BYU, Cincinnati and UCF added last season…
It's that level of elite teams, including two projected No. 1 seeds, that puts the Big 12 at the top of the rankings,” Lunardi wrote.
Tommy Lloyd and his team certainly have their work cut out for them. This is a deep conference as there will be no easy nights, especially with some of the travel that will have to be done.
These new power conferences create unique challenges teams haven’t had to combat previously, which could make the 2024-25 campaign one of the wildest in college basketball history.
The Wildcats should be prepared. They have been a No. 2 seed twice and No. 1 seed once under Lloyd, knowing exactly what it will take to be a top-ranked team in the country.
