UCLA, Big Ten basketball face challenges from Big 12 and SEC

Matt Zemek
 |  UCLA Wire

UCLA men’s basketball will improve its chances of making the Final Four if it can finish in the top two of the Big Ten. If UCLA can climb past Michigan and become the best non-Purdue team in the conference, the Bruins would likely have a top-three NCAA Tournament seed and a better path to the first weekend of April. However, when UCLA gets to March, it might run into teams from the Big 12 or SEC. This season, the narrative surrounding college basketball conference supremacy could change.

Keep in mind what happened last season, as we wrote a few days ago:‘

“In the 2025 NCAA Tournament, SEC basketball memorably put 14 of its 16 teams in the field. As the scene shifts to the new college basketball season, Big Ten basketball is under pressure to deliver the goods. Last season, the SEC won the national title and put two teams in the Final Four as a result of flooding the zone in March Madness. The Big Ten did not produce a Final Four team, and its national title drought stretched to 25 years.”

Not only did the SEC get 14 NCAA Tournament teams and two Final Four teams; the conference had four teams in the Elite Eight, one in each of the four regional finals. The 2025 SEC also put seven teams in the Sweet 16. The conference was well represented at every stage of the 2025 NCAA Tournament and produced the champion, the Florida Gators. The Big Ten wants to be able to do that in an NCAA Tournament, but this season, a non-SEC, non-Big Ten league might become that major threat.

Get this: Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated ranked all 365 Division I men’s college basketball teams before the start of the season. The Big 12 has five of the top 13 teams. That’s right. It’s not a misprint. Arizona is No. 13 in Sweeney’s national rankings, but No. 5 in the Big 12. That’s wild.

As a comparison, UCLA is No. 19 in Sweeney’s rankings and No. 5 in the Big Ten. Being fifth in a major conference is solid, and should be commensurate with a top-25 ranking. The Big 12, at least in Sweeney’s eyes, has a fifth-place team in the top 15 of the rankings and, theoretically, in the Sweet 16 in March.

Will the Big 12 live up to this lofty preseason evaluation? Will the SEC repeat what it achieved last season? Or, can the Big Ten break through and deliver the kind of college basketball season we will talk about for a long time? We’re all about to find out as the 2025-2026 season begins.