The 2025-26 Big 12 basketball season continues to draw closer with teams planning their summer exhibition series and nonconference schedules being finalized. NBA draft prospects are either heading to the draft or returning to school after the deadline to declare passed in late May. The spring transfer portal is also in the rearview mirror meaning that most 2025-26 roster is finalized.
Notable Big 12 players expected to be selected in the draft include Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe and BYU’s Egor Demin but plenty of other conference stars 12 stars will be back to dominate arguably the top conference in college basketball.
CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein recently posted the Big 12’s updated returning scoring numbers for the upcoming season. As is the case for football, returning production is a strong indicator of which teams will have success in the upcoming season. Despite the Big 12 sending the second-most teams to the 2025 NCAA tournament, the conference does not have a single team with more than 50% of their 2024-25 scoring returning.
The transfer portal has complicated returning production due to several high-profile teams turning to the portal to replace departing stars. However, the stat still has value when looking at general preseason rankings and predictions. Here are Rothstein’s returning scoring numbers for every Big 12 team entering 2025.
- Iowa State Cyclones (49.6%)
- Houston Cougars (49.4%)
- BYU Cougars (47.2%)
- Arizona Wildcats (38.6%)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (36.6%)
- Colorado Buffaloes (34.1%)
- Cincinnati Wildcats (33.4%)
- TCU Horned Frogs (28.1%)
- Kansas Jayhawks (16%)
- Utah Utes (10.7%)
- Oklahoma State Cowboys (9%)
- Kansas State Wildcats (5.9%)
- Arizona State Sun Devils (1.7%)
- Baylor Bears (0%)
- West Virginia (0%)
- UCF Knights (0%)
Big 12 programs saw a lot of turnover following the 2024-25 seasons with no team returning more than half of their scoring production. Houston was the national runner-up, but even the Cougars won’t have the same squad that nearly won the title last season. On the surface, these percentages would suggest more parity in the conference and perhaps more chances for sleeper teams to make a run. However, the transfer does deflate these numbers as top teams consistently add high-profile scorers that would not count towards returning production.
Iowa State looks like a legit Big 12 contender after going 25-10 last season and Houston is not going anywhere setting the conference up for another hotly contested season. Some teams will be happy that their returning production is lower if they are looking to rebuild after a down year, Colorado, Arizona State and Oklahoma State are a few examples.
However the Big 12 shakes out, it should be another wild basketball season.
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