Last week, the released every school’s 2025-26 home-and-home opponents. In the new structure, with 18 games and 16 schools, each team only gets to play three teams twice in the regular season… a far cry from the beautiful round robin.
The Cyclone men’s three opponents are Kansas, Baylor and Oklahoma State. The home-only opponents are: Arizona State, UCF, Colorado, Houston, Texas Tech, West Virginia. The away-only opponents are: Arizona, BYU, Cincinnati, Kansas State, TCU, Utah. The entire conference’s opponent list can be found here.
We aren’t sure what the future will look like. Will these opponents rotate or are these “protected rivalries?” Either way, I’m going to rank Big 12 basketball opponents in terms of my interest of who I would want the Cyclones to face twice each season. I used an excel sheet and ranked 15 teams in four categories: history, venue, proximity, quality of team.
Who else would it be? The Cyclones and Jayhawks have played 260 times since 1908, an average of 2.2 times per year. While Kansas owns a dominant series record of 191-69, it’s been a fairly competitive rivalry dating back to when got his second career technical foul and had his face broken open. Since that 2014 Big 12 Tournament, Kansas has a 15-10 record in the series which is not nearly as lopsided as most of Kansas’ series in that time. Plus, by pretty much every metric, and are two of the best venues in the sport. When those teams meet in Lawrence and Ames, it’s some of the best basketball that this sport offers.
The Cyclones should play K-State twice a year for a lot of the same reasons as Kansas, minus the blue blood status. These teams have met 242 times since 1909 and while K-State owns the historical series, it’s been one of the more competitive series in the conference since the turn of the century (29-28 ISU.) The history combined with the proximity makes it a no-brainer. The ongoing rivalry with is just another reason and the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s not really drivable but Baylor has consistently provided great games over the course of the era. Iowa State fans have watched the Bears go from basement dwellers to National Champions. One could make the argument that Cyclone fans should actually not want to play Baylor twice a year because of Drew’s 4-6 record in Ames since 2015, which would be valid. However, has won five of six against Baylor by an average of 13.8 points and it seems that ‘Otzball’ is a bad matchup for Baylor.
There’s not much history with this opponent but the recent history is pretty dang good. The Cyclones and Cougars have met four times in two years and each game has been elite for the casual basketball fan. Iowa State’s two wins over Houston have been extremely memorable with a game-winner and a 28 point win in the 2024 Big 12 Championship. Houston’s two wins have both been two of the most entertaining battles of the Otzelberger era. In my opinion, after KU and K-State, there’s a pretty massive drop-off in rivals for Iowa State and frankly, Houston doesn’t have any rivals yet. The similar play styles have already made for some classic games and if that continues to happen, this could develop into a real rivalry.
Let me preface this, as a Cyclone fan, I would not want Iowa State to play BYU every year. From a Big 12 perspective, it would make a lot of sense for this series to be played every year. BYU has proven to be a kryptonite for Iowa State in their first two seasons in the conference. The Cougars have won 3 of 4 over Iowa State and the only loss included a 15-point comeback by the Cyclones on senior night. On top of that, it appears that BYU is only going to get better. BYU’s NBA offense to Iowa State’s suffocating defense is like oil to water… playing that in Provo and Ames each year would be must-see TV. (Bonus points for one of the most memorable non-con games in program history.)
If you asked me a decade ago, Texas Tech would’ve easily been dead last. A lot can change in 10 years. Tech has been one of the strongest programs in the league and they’ve been elite under two different head coaches. While they’ve had a lot of great years dating back to 2018, Iowa State and Tech have rarely been elite during the same season, so there’s not a ton of great games between the two but I envision that changing in the future. Perhaps ‘s late game heroics are a vision of what’s to come.
I know that Chris Williams would be fine never going back to Tuscon and who could blame him? Iowa State’s first trip to Tuscon was a nightmare and will always be one of the first nut kicks that I think about. HOWEVER, for the first 39 minues and 59 seconds, it was pretty dang cool to see ISU playing in an atmosphere like the McKale Center. If both parties agree that isn’t allowed in the building, I’d be fine with this doubleheader.
The Pokes would be much higher if Marcus Smart earned another year of eligibility. The 2013-2017 range of this series was my favorite stretch of games in program history. From Chris Babb dunking on Smart to “Naz Long does it again” to Abdel Nader’s senior night baptism and everything in-between, this series delivered. Unfortunately, those days are gone and I’m not too confident that they’re ever coming back.
The Riot Bowl was a forced rivalry that never really took off. It did provide some great memories in the Dustin Hogue era and with the best dunk in Big 12 Tournament history but there hasn’t been a marquee moment in this series since 2017. It would’ve been ranked higher from a local perspective if stuck around… but we all know that’s a touchy subject in Morgantown.
This is more of a bet thinking that Cincinnati could return to the level that they were at for so long because right now there’s not much going for this series. Believe it or not, this is fourth closest school to Ames. Additionally, the two games played in 2025 got pretty chippy. If the Bearcats can elevate towards the top of the Big 12, this could be a fun rivalry.
It’s hard to rank a Big 8 school this low because of the history and proximity but there’s nothing interesting about Colorado basketball to me. Maybe they’ll make a good hire after hangs it up but until then, I’d rather watch this highlight than play Colorado twice a season.
I knew one thing for sure, TCU would be dead-last of the Big 12 teams that have been here for longer than two years. Even though they’ve had some really solid teams under Jamie Dixon, there’s nothing interesting about TCU basketball to me. If it weren’t for , the Horned Frogs could be even lower.
These last three could’ve easily been thrown in a random number generator because they are interchangeable. Next to no history, far away, and boring venues. UCF gets the nod because there’s at least been two pretty important road wins already in their two years in the league.
Two Bobby Hurley meltdowns a year would be fun. Other than that? I don’t know.
15. Utah
I still haven’t forgiven them for the 1944 Final Four.
