College Basketball Podcast: Kansas vs. the field to win the stacked Big 12?

Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander discuss what again rates as college basketball's best league

By Gary Parrish

Dec 27, 2017 at 12:11 pm ET • 1 min read

USATSI

BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- I'm still at Walt Disney World with the family -- juggling kids, dealing with crowds, so on and so forth. But Matt Norlander and I found a Wednesday morning window in which to record an episode of the Eye on College Basketball podcast. So we recorded an episode of the Eye on College Basketball podcast. And we opened on ... Florida balconies and minivans.

(It wasn't planned that way. It just happened.)

So that went on for a few minutes. But then, at the 6:03 mark, we turned our attention to the Big 12. Because Big 12 play starts Friday. And the Big 12 is, for the fifth consecutive season, according to KenPom, the best league in college basketball. There are four teams in the top 15 and nine in the top 50. The lowest-rated school is Iowa State at No. 76. Which is why something like a 12-6 league record might be good enough to win the Big 12 regular-season title outright.

Would you take Kansas or the field in the Big 12?

Norlander and I discussed that at the 20:36 mark. And then, at the 30:38 mark, we broke down Friday's Big 12 schedule that features three ranked teams in true road games: