Arizona leads CBS Sports’ Big 12 projection for 2026-27, with Houston and Kansas positioned as primary challengers

Arizona is the projected favorite to win the Big 12 in 2026-27, according to CBS Sports’ preseason expert picks for the league’s order of finish. The selection places the Wildcats in a position to absorb early expectations and remain the conference’s most consistent title candidate, with Houston and Kansas framed as the most likely teams to challenge the top spot.

The panel’s projection comes after a season CBS Sports describes as a strong year for the Big 12 overall, highlighted by eight conference schools reaching the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Within that larger postseason success, Arizona is singled out for reaching the Final Four in Indianapolis and for winning the Big 12 title in a manner described as decisive in the regular season and dramatic in the conference tournament.

Preseason title conversations in the Big 12 tend to pivot on whether the league’s blend of pressure defense, high-tempo half-court offense, and matchup-specific coaching can hold up across a long conference slate. In that framework, Arizona’s place at the top of the projected order reflects CBS Sports’ belief that the Wildcats can translate postseason-level performance into the next campaign, even as every contender must plan for the departures that inevitably follow deep NCAA runs.

Houston and Kansas are positioned just behind Arizona in the CBS Sports outlook, suggesting the expert panel expects the league’s traditional brand of top-end talent and program-level stability to keep those teams near the top of the standings. Kansas, in particular, is repeatedly treated league-wide as a barometer program, and the projection indicates CBS believes it will remain a threat to win both regular-season hardware and the conference tournament.

CBS Sports also ties the broader preseason picture to NBA draft outcomes, noting that two Big 12 alumni were taken first and second in the 2026 NBA Draft: AJ Dybantsa from BYU and Darryn Peterson from Kansas. That context matters for how teams approach the coming season, because it underscores the league’s talent pipeline while also raising the usual question of who will step in to replace high-usage production and game-changing playmaking.

With those elements in mind, Arizona’s preseason standing is not simply a reflection of past success. It is also a statement about how the Wildcats are expected to navigate the recurring Big 12 realities of close conference games, frequent head-to-head swing matchups, and the need to win under tournament-style pressure when the regular season ends.

What to watch next is whether Arizona can confirm its projected role early in nonconference and early Big 12 games, and whether Houston and Kansas separate themselves as the primary challengers in the race for the league’s top seed and momentum heading into the Big 12 tournament.

Even within a preseason order-of-finish, there are multiple pathways to the postseason picture, including how teams develop through the first half of conference play and whether their styles create consistent advantages against league opponents. As the 2026-27 season begins, the first true tests will be the head-to-head matchups against the teams CBS Sports flags most clearly as threats to the Wildcats’ title hold.