Big 12 hasn’t gotten its due this winter. Here are the facts.

Something caught my eye Monday when the Associated Press released its weekly college men’s basketball poll.

The Big 12 had three schools – Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State – ranked in the nation’s top dozen (OK, truthfully, Top 13). Only the Big Ten matches that total.

The Big Ten is a fine league and been promoted as the nation’s best all winter. But, the Big 12 hasn’t gotten its due.

With 20% of its membership in the current AP Top 10 (the Big Ten has 25%) and 30% of its membership in the Top 15 (the Big Ten has 33%), the Big 12 is surely a premiere conference and should be represented accordingly in the NCAA Tournament.

A website named collegehoops.net, assessed conference strength by averaging power ratings from KenPom, Sagarin and the RPI. Those calculations had the Big Ten and Big 12 as the best conferences.

The Big 12 plays a double round-robin schedule, too. That means schools like Iowa State will have six in-conference games vs. Top 15 opposition. The Cyclones will play the same number of Top 15 schools in league play as Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio State.

The Cyclones are 1-4 against the Jayhawks (two heart-breaking losses), Wildcats (split home games) and Cowboys (a last-second loss in Stillwater with the rematch tomorrow).

When the NCAA selection committee starts comparing resumes, they won’t find very many teams with multiple wins over Top 13 schools.

The question to be answered Wednesday night is whether ISU can become one of those schools with more than one win vs. Top 15 opposition.

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