Due to the 14-team B12 this year and an 18 game schedule, the schedules are imbalanced. Each B12 team faces each other team at least once to get to 13 games. Then, each B12 team face 5 opponents a second time to get to 18 games (essentially, those 5 are a home and home).

Our 5 home and home opponents are:

Kansas
Texas
TCU
BYU
Texas Tech


I get why the league wants BU/KU/UT playing each other as much as possible. With BYU surprising to the upside early in the season, this means 4 of our 5 home/home opponents will likely be in the top half of the league with our only breaks being TTU is rebuilding and we miss UH on the home/home circuit (only playing them once in Waco.

For comparison,

Houston's home/home are with:
UCF
ISU
UT
KU
Cincy

Kansas:
UH
Baylor
KSU
Okie
Okie St.

Texas:
Okie
Baylor
UH
WVU(???)
TTU

Wildcards:

TCU home/home:
Baylor
ISU
WVU
Cincy
TTU

BYU:
ISU
Baylor
UCF
Okie St.
ISU

On the positive side, by March our strength of schedule is going to be lights out, especially if we go deep in the B12 tourney and BYU keeps it up in the non-conf.

On the negative side, we probably have the toughest path to the B12 regular season title with the way BYU is playing. Kansas or Texas may have the easiest path to the B12 regular season title of the top 4 teams in the league.

If I were in Vegas and a betting man, depending on odds, I'd put some throwaway money on BYU and TCU because they have much easier paths to the B12 regular season title due to the schedule imbalance.

Our sos could look better by March if Auburn & Florida win more games and become ranked.

historian said:

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Our sos could look better by March if Auburn & Florida win more games and become ranked.

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KenPom already has Auburn/Florida at 16/25 respectively. I would expect them both to come up in major polls.

Thanks. I forgot to check.

That's why the depth on this team is so critical....it will take some time, maybe some bumps in the road, but come March Madness, Drew will have the horses to counter any lineup on the court. Buckle up - gonna be a fun season!!!

Really helps that we get Houston at home and don't have to return the favor.

There's a chart somewhere that goes in detail about the SOS for every B12 team in league play. Ours is by far the hardest. Not slipping against the UCFs, Cincinnati, OSU, OUs in league play will be critical this year. I really like how league play starts for us

Cincy could be a tough out at their place. They just got late clearance for the 7 foot transfer, Bandaogo.

I need to see how they fare against s team with a pulse. Like TCU their non con is a complete joke

IowaBear said:

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I need to see how they fare against s team with a pulse. Like TCU their non con is a complete joke

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TCU couldn't even draw a decent opponent for the Big East Challenge.

Why Dixon continues to do this is just baffling. His first few years I get it.. but now that they have a competitive team I have no idea why he's such a wimp with non con scheduling

IowaBear said:

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There's a chart somewhere that goes in detail about the SOS for every B12 team in league play. Ours is by far the hardest. Not slipping against the UCFs, Cincinnati, OSU, OUs in league play will be critical this year. I really like how league play starts for us

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Our SOS reminds me somewhat of 2019-20 in that we opened conference play with Texas at home & 2 tough triad games: Tech (when Beard had them as a very good team, after playing for a national title) & Kansas. We won both, including our only ever win in Lawrence. And our winning streak continued until it reached a record 23 games. It was our best season ever, until the next one.

I wish we had more ranked teams in no conference, especially now that Michigan State has dropped out if the rankings.

Rankings themselves won't matter. Michigan St will still be at worst s Q2 win come March. Duke a Q1. Win either of those are we're looking at a really solid resume heading into conference play. The conference is down but there's still plenty of Q1 opportunities

Good point. It's about the quad rankings. Most of the Big 12 will still be quad 1 or 2, won't they?

I assume. Doubt UCF, WV, OSU do. They may be now but by seasons end I bet those are Q3. KU, Houston, Tx are sure fire Q1 teams at seasons end. Think TCU may get there's as well. ISU, KSU are both comfortable Q2 . Not sure what to make of Tech, BYU, and OU.
Remember a lot of these teams will fluctuate between quads throughout the year. Where they finish Quad wise is what will ultimately matter

Reasonable analysis

DallasBear9902 said:

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On the negative side, we probably have the toughest path to the B12 regular season title with the way BYU is playing. Kansas or Texas may have the easiest path to the B12 regular season title of the top 4 teams in the league.

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Steel sharpens steel, and yada yada yada.

Also keep in mind road and neutral court wins are more valuable. The 2 neutral court wins so far are carrying and probably will carry a ton of weight through the season. A team like Okie St for example could be a Q3 home win but a Q2 road win. Lots of chances at solid wins quad wise even against the bottom B12 teams