This week in Dan McDonald’s series of ranking the best basketball jobs by conference, he takes a look at how the jobs in the Big 12 stack up. If every job in the conference were to open up today, how would he rank them in order of the most attractive to the top candidates?
RANKING THE JOBS: ACC | Big Ten
MORE: Three-Point Play | Wednesday's Mailbag | Bossi's Best
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1. Kansas
I don’t see how anyone would argue this. The Jayhawks win the league more than anyone else and are always in the mix for national titles. They have a winning tradition, can recruit all over the country and have a crazy fan base that gives them a great home-court advantage.
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2. Texas
Texas is one of the biggest brands in college athletics. It’s in a state loaded with talent and kids that mostly love the idea of playing for the Longhorns. They have endless resources. They just don’t have the same level of winning history, fan support, or the same ability to recruit five-star talent coast to coast that Kansas does.
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3. Texas Tech
This one might be a little bit of a surprise, but I value jobs where you see multiple coaches experience success. James Dickey did a good job in Lubbock, and he was followed by Bobby Knight, who took it to another level. Tubby Smith had a good run with the Red Raiders as well, and now Chris Beard has them in the conversation as one of the top programs in the country.
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4. Baylor
Location, location, location. Baylor’s Waco campus is perfectly located to capitalize on the talent in Texas. Scott Drew and his staff don’t have to drive much more than 100 miles in any direction from campus to find a ton of highly ranked recruits. Combine that with a supportive administration, resources and a new arena on the way and you have a pretty good job.
5. Oklahoma State
The Cowboys have probably the strongest history of winning in the Big 12 after Kansas, with six Final Four appearances. Great facilities, a passionate fan base and Oklahoma State can pull top players out of Texas, particularly in Dallas-Forth Worth area.
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6. Oklahoma
Like Texas, Oklahoma is one of the biggest brands in college sports. It’s been proven the program can win and recruit top talent like Trae Young and Blake Griffin, but it’s just a little tougher with the “football school” label the Sooners get. They also don’t get great fan support outside of a few big conference games every year.
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7. West Virginia
The best part about the West Virginia job is without question the fan support the Mountaineers receive, and it’s another place where we’ve seen multiple coaches get the job done. Without having a natural recruiting base though, it makes it tough to get the top-level talent needed to make a deep run in March.
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8-10: Iowa State/Kansas State/TCU
These three jobs are all about on par with each other. Kansas State and Iowa State are similar jobs. There is crazy fan support that makes for a great home-court advantage. Multiple coaches have won at those schools, but there are very few top players in either state. When there is a top player in either state, Kansas or another top program usually steals him.
With TCU, it’s the opposite. It’s located in a big metropolitan area, which makes attracting fans a little tougher. However, there are tons of players within a stone’s throw from the Fort Worth campus. It’s just such a saturated market to recruit that it can be tough to keep them home. TCU is also still relatively new to the league. The football program was more prepared for the jump to the highest level. It could be that we look up in a few years if Jamie Dixon keeps winning and we list this as a better job a few years from now because it does have “sleeping giant” potential.
