EXPOSED: ESPN Was Just CAUGHT Rigging March Madness AGAINST Big 12, SEC Media Bias SWAYS Committee

So there I am. I turn on ESPN. I'm thinking I'll eat at Big 12's the best league in college basketball.

Surely they have nine, ten, eleven teams of March madness, but no, that's the SEC.

And they want Auburn? They're like five and eleven in league play. Auburn into March?

Oh, this is locked on Big 12 locked on college basketball crossover.

You are locked on Big 12. Your daily podcast on the Big 12 conference, part of the locked on

podcast network, your team every day. I mean, Tuesday, everybody, welcome to a locked on Big 12

locked on college basketball crossover. I'm Drake Toll from America's number one Big 12 podcast

locked on Big 12. That's Isaac shade of locked on college basketball. Thank you for making

our shows your first lesson every single day. Shade also hosts locked on Tarheals,

talking all things North Carolina. So we know who's from the ACC Big 12 perspective.

The SEC is getting a lot of love from the major networks. Is it warranted? We'll start there

and then we'll hit BYU, TCU, Texas Tech. Some of these big 12 schools that have sung into that

second third, maybe fourth tier. Can they still make March madness runs? Here's why I think the

answers. Yes, we get Isaac's thoughts as well. And then how many? Got to be two or three,

maybe four big 12 teams can actually make the final four in a year where there's a pretty

clear four at the very top of college basketball that all should be there. Who can topple? Uh-oh.

I like that facial expression. You can topple the likes of a Michigan and Sneak, or do can sneak

their way in. If you hit subscribe, we get to keep our jobs. Shade, man, I need to know. I don't

get it. I don't get it. Why? I look at Joe Lennarty's bracketology and he's so high on the SEC

when the Big 12 and even the ACC now are top of the Big 10. So top of it. It's one of the best

talent in all of college basketball. The SEC just has a lot of teams waiting around in that,

you know, 12 to 35th spot and namely in net. Where does the love come from for those three

letters, but not the rest of the country? Well, Drake, you've just said it with the SEC,

Florida aside, it's just a lot of black. There's like, do you want quantity or do you want

quality with the SEC? It's quantity with the big 12. It's quality in my opinion with the big 10.

It's quality in my opinion. The top one, two, maybe three in the ACC quality. And so I think it's

all about how you define success. For me, the big 12 success comes in. There are multiple teams and

I don't want to get too far ahead for conversation, but there are multiple teams at the top of the

big 12 that I think can win the national championship. There are multiple teams at the top of the

big 10 that I think could win the national championship outside of Florida. There is no

s here. Hear me everybody. See me read my lips outside of Florida. There is no SEC team that is

even final for worthy. And so it's like, I get, because I'm the same thing, I get frustrated

at like the SEC love. But if we want to define it, because what do we remember? The number of teams

outside of last year when the SEC set an NCAA tournament record? Sure, maybe. But outside of that,

what do we remember? We remember who won the whole blessed thing. And we remember who the final

four was. When we look back, I think we, even though the SEC is trending with more number of

volume teams, we ain't going to remember the SEC. We're going to remember the big 12, big 10

chiefly from this season. You know, I want to push back on that a little bit. Please do.

I do. I think if you ask the average human being, name two teams in the final four in 2022,

that have no idea. Like, they would have no clue. Shade Villanilla.

Other than the fact that that was a wildly blue blooded year, yes.

Oh, 100%. That was a Nova. I mean, come on, ball noirs. Do Carolina is a final four game.

It can't just Carolina plays Kansas. Okay. So we know, right? Yeah,

for human being, what if I had no clue? Villanilla was there. And they remember that, oh, yeah,

that was Kansas one of the year after Baylor one of the year after. And that's what

somebody asked you recently was a BYU fan said, hey, what is BYU have to do to be remembered?

Do they have to go to the final four? I said, no, plenty of teams have been to the final four.

And you think, oh, that's cute. Or you just forget about it altogether. You have to win

championships to be at the top of college basketball. That's that's weird part, though, Shade.

The big 12 did that. They won them back to back. They had the presence in the final four. They

were in the title last year. Yes, the SEC won it. But the big 12 has more in the 2020s than that

conference does. I just why? Again, people keep going back to the SEC is 500 against itself

in conference play. You have to be by Newton's law of conference play. Everyone's 500 at the end

of this thing. How do they continue to garner this middle of the pack? We need 11 or 12 teams in.

It didn't really work out that well last year. No, it's based on what happens in non-conference play.

It's based on, excuse me, the net and the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.

Like the selection committee has six different things they look at. Three of them are predictive

metrics based on like what the computer algorithms suggest should happen. And three of them are

then results based metrics. And so that is what people are putting all that together. And that's

what the net ranking is attempting to do is look at all of that. And so because of where the SEC

numbers are, because of what they do in non-conference play, that's why it brings this up. So like,

for example, an Arkansas last year. I didn't think I had any business making it in, but there they were.

Auburn, which I think now has found my goodness. They lost it home to Ole Miss over the weekends.

They're like, what are we doing here? So I think Auburn is finally now sticking fork in on

their done. But before that, they should have already had about 87 forks in them and been done.

And so, and I'm not defending that. I'm just explaining why it comes to be that way. I don't

agree with it either. Shade, last thing I'll give you here. You mentioned non-conference. I think

you're certainly right that they're going to track that. The big 12, 16 and 6 versus the SEC,

eight and nine versus the big 10, 14 and 10 versus the ACC and then seven and six versus the big

ease. They've got a really good record against the best competition in the country. And you've

mentioned wax poetic about why the SEC has treated this way. What is, I mean, West Virginia is

sitting there screaming. What do we have to do? What do we have to do? We're 500 in the big 12,

like 1911 overall. What more does it take? I just, so yes, you've helped me get to a conclusion

of why this is happening. I just, I still, I will not be a compute how a TCU or West Virginia is

being slaughtered behind in Auburn right now. And they should not be like Western,

that win over, I know BYU is on a little bit of a slide right now. But that win for West Virginia

over them over the weekend. Critically huge. Cincinnati had been on a nice little run ever since

West Miller apologized to everybody. TCU, like beaten, what was the case? Oh, yeah, it was a

purple battle over the weekend. TCU beating case state. Good for them. I know case state,

whatever things are crazy in Manhattan right now. But like TCU should be in shape to make this

thing. And so ultimately, I personally have the big 12 as the best conference in the country right

now. This season hands down. Ken Palm has them as second behind the SEC. But again, that's because

Ken Palm's algorithm projects a little bit more depth that does it despite the higher end

capability of the big 12. I agree with it. No. Like the algorithm fine. Sure, whatever you're going to

do, what you're going to do. My problem Drake is that I feel like there is baked into it a little

bit of self fulfilling prophecy where some of like the preseason projections kind of continue to

live on with a lot of it, all of that kind of stuff. Ultimately, what I think is going to be great

is when we get to the postseason, I fully expect when we get to the second weekend. We're looking

at, okay, how many big 12 teams are left? How many SEC teams are right? Like those kind of things.

And I know so like you can't just base it on that because so much of it is match of base and blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, fine, whatever. Big 12 is better than the SEC.

We're also, we're also arguing about who's going to lose to Michigan. I mean, if we're really

honest about this, I'm not, no, come on. Anytime we get to the bottom of the, I said, we get to the

bubble. We're arguing now in this era of college basketball about who's going to lose to Arizona.

I was going to lose to you. I was going to lose Florida. We know. Yeah.

Well, then go with me on this. Let's not argue about the bubble. Let's look at the top end of it.

Oh, let's do it. Let's do it. Well, that's the last segment, but yeah, continue.

Well, no, and I don't mean in like in terms of how I'm just going to talk numbers. I'm not going

to talk names. The big 12 right now for me has five teams that would be a one through four seat.

The big 10 right now has five teams that would be a one through four seat. ACC has two. SEC has two.

Like so if we're not wanting to base it on the bubble, if we're going to base it on teams that

could actually win this whole blessed thing, there you go. The big 12 has the numbers on the SEC

by two and a half. I like that. Coming up BYU TCU. These teams in the middle of the pack in the big 12.

Can one of them get hot? Can one of them win? I think so. I think so. Here's why this is locked on

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as well for the every day or as to prove your every day or hood. I am buying. I'm believing

in BYU. I'm believing in in Texas tech, especially after they're win at Iowa state, which

who that told me more about Iowa state than it did Texas tech. It exposed to me more holes in

Iowa state than it told me about where I think Texas tech, because I already know that Texas that

tech is that kind of world beater bloody you defensive jug or not for Iowa state. That's a wound

and that BYU loss after Richie Saunders went out. Those are both wounds that I go, oh,

whoa, Iowa state. Where'd that come from? But even still so Texas tech BYU. I'm going to have

them in the conversation TCU whose whose angling toward an NCAA tournament bid UCF.

Shade, I the reason I think those are sweet 16 caliber teams is because when we get into this thing

and BYU has a first round matchup against Miami of Ohio, who I think is good, but they

finally pulled off and win. And the second round they played Nebraska or maybe Illinois, maybe

Purdue or Virginia. I think the strength of the big 12, the net of the big 12 can propel a TCU

UCF BYU Texas tech into a sweet 16 or elite eight when you start pairing them against teams like

Alabama or Tennessee out of the SEC teams like like a Miami of Ohio. That's where I believe this

conference will thrive because the league schedule has seasoned these, these roster so well.

It is. And that's where I mean, it's like you look up every night and there's a,

I mean, not every night because we don't play every night, but there's a big 12 matchup that's like

a good luck doing that. And it's not even just these top five or six teams. It's like, look,

I know Utah's not great, but good luck going up to that elevation and and doing stuff, right?

Like good luck heading up to Boulder and knocking off the buffs, whatever it is, right? And so

there's it just feels like nightly that you have to deal with something going down to Orlando,

right? Like I feel like UCF wins more often than you expect in some of those crazy games.

John, he's got a cooking, you know? And so drink these nightly tests. Again, I know we're talking

about the big 12 being top heavy, but I think the middle, as you said, and even some of the bottom

is better than we give it credit for, you know, around the country or wherever you want to say it.

Look, like I know Kansas State is just kind of falling off right now, but they've still got

PJ Hagger to you got to contend with, right? Like Oklahoma State has fallen off since some of what we

maybe thought about them earlier, but Hank Iba, man, that's a tough place to go play. And so

there is never like just truly a night off where it's like you can sleepwalk through it.

Like the Big East, I mean, the Big East legitimately is only going to get three teams into the

tournament this year. And it's great. Like the bottom of the Big East is awful. The big 12 does not

provide that. And while it's tougher in the slog of January and February, ultimately Drake,

as you're saying, that's so much better for these teams because there's so much more battle

tested coming into March. You look at a like I respect everything Miami of Ohio and what they've

done. Like I'm so proud of. It's so cool. What a neat story. But Drake, not only have they not

won any quad one games, they haven't played a quad one game. Like they're poor guys, they're just

not going to be ready for March. And I hate it for them, but it's true.

I also really like them. I hate disparaging them. Yeah, exactly. Man, but I do think they'll end up

within 11 seed, not 10 seed, maybe. And people will say, well, the eight people, I know, but the

eight people is a very different thing. That's exactly right. Then how we see these teams from

March, Matt, as Miami of Ohio will not be a top four seed or five seed despite the eight people

having them somewhere in that range. The bill, let's camp out for a second with a BYU for Texas

Tech. Both similar situations lose a star player to to a lower body injury. But one of the teams

has responded by just winning. Texas Texas just winning BYU on the other hand, they've had a

pretty tumultuous last week and a half, two weeks, two teams, different trajectories. I think Texas

Tech, even without JT Toppen, they're, they're a, and, man, this is word soup here. But what I want to

communicate, the listeners have locked on big tub of one thing to know with water cooler is today,

a three seed, upsetting a one seed is the same thing five years ago as an eight seed,

upsetting a one. So the gap between one and three, the gap between Duke and Texas Tech,

right now with JT Toppen out is large. It, it's continuing to grow. The tech though,

they're that team that I could still see go, you know what? Yep, they're a final four squad

because of Grant McCastlin. BYU, BYU is a sweet 16 team. I don't see a world right now where I

can take them past the elite eight. Yeah, let's start with tech. What, what I love about tech,

dude, I mean, it's the second that JT Toppen injury was announced coming off of that Arizona

state game where that injury happened. Everybody started writing them off immediately because you got

the reigning big 12 player that you're done and gone, right? Like in, in BYU's case, you still had

two thirds of the government working for you and to quote Mars attacks, that ain't bad, right?

And so that's the good news because they're still AJ. They're still Rob with, with Texas Tech,

it's been this big two of JT and Christian Anderson. And so at that point, it was like, man,

C.A. is going to have to take a lot on his shoulders, right? And he did those first two games that

tech played right after that. Kansas state and Cincinnati, both at home. He did just about everything.

But what I love Drake, that Iowa state win over the end, not only was it critically important

because it was a way because it showed us and voters what they can still do because yes,

as you just said, Grant McCaslin is a dude of a coach. It was not just Christian Anderson,

just a spread out offensive attack. Five or six different double figures. I think it was six.

I'm not looking at the box score right now. But what I love is that you've got other guys stepping

up, right? Donovan out well, stepping up doing it. LeWan Watts stepping in, doing some of these

things as you need. You've finally gotten a little healthier loop band boy A coming back,

some other things like that where guys are stepping into that. There is no one player for

Texas Tech that's going to fill JT shoes. You just can't. But man, the tough nose grit with which

they play is insane to me. And when you say that, it makes you think defense, that Texas Tech

offense is ninth in the country and offensive efficiency right now. And what I love is I said,

we everyone initially wrote them all the way off after the injury. I love that this week,

there was a nice response back in the other direction. Texas Tech was the biggest

riser in the brand new way people that came out on Monday going up six spots. So I love that people

kind of owned it. Like I've said on our show, I've seen other national people saying, hey,

we thought Tech would fall off. They haven't three and no and looking forward. They've got TCU at

home coming up Tuesday night. And then oddly and ironically enough, the other ACL ridden team,

they're at BYU to wrap the regular season Saturday. And so Drake, I guess that takes us then

to BYU, which as you said, has not been able to live up and do it at the same level that Texas Tech had.

Now what three or one in three, excuse me, after the Richie Saunders injury,

losing to Arizona, UCF West Virginia. But beating Iowa State, oddly enough, they've both.

And so that's that's kind of the weird thing here. BYU, I'm concerned about Drake. I got to be

honest. I liked them. I was all of the big six in the big 12. I had them at the bottom of that

even before Richie's injury. And so I'm nervous. I'm nervous for the Cougars. I got to be honest.

I think BYU fans are also pretty nervous here. But last year was a monumental year for them. And

they I'm going to say only because in the context of the big 12, the expectation is the top teams

are the final four. They only made the sweet 16. So they do that again. Well, they got to be

like you. I'm a good grief. Yeah, they did. That was one of the greatest shooting performances

of everteens that college basketball team. Don't remind them. Don't remind me. I shan't.

I shan't. We we rescind. We rescind and say, yeah, I think that if BYU does make the sweet 16,

they did a lot. Yeah, we're happy. Cool expectation met for where the expectation was reset post

Richie Saunders coming up. It will not be a very happy time for Calvin Samson if they only make

the sweet 16 or Arizona and Tommy Lloyd, who will make the final four out of the big 12. This

is a locked on big 12 locked on college basketball crossover.

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Isaac shade of locked on college basketball. The time we're recording this is actually before

a fairly marquee game that will take place in the big 12 tonight. Yeah, I always take travels to

Arizona. The reason being two things. Number one, I would like to go to bed before 1 a.m.

Eastern time. Number two, um, they're both going to be either a one or two seat in March madness.

I don't see that changing based on how their schedule looks. I do believe the committee will

honor them, but they're still part of this conversation. No matter the outcome of that game

yesterday. I always stay or or even that Texas tech dark horse, a Houston and Arizona

of the big 12 schools near the top of college basketball. How many are actually and again,

I think the gap between a one seat to three seat is way different now than it was a few years ago.

That one seat is so heavy with talent. Is there a cutoff line of the big where is the cutoff line

of the big 12 teams that can actually be final four? Top five are all final four possibilities.

No way. That's a lot of teams. No, a lot of teams. Drake, I'm deadly serious. Now there are

contingencies. Of course, can Darren Peterson play basketball like if he can, there is no reason

that a Darren Peterson cannot help lead this team to the final four to Indianapolis. You think

about it like one of the trade offs of all his on and off is think about all the experience that

Melvin council has had having to lead this team when DPs off the court adjusting to things that

fly at him unexpectedly, right? Like that's what marches and trade white in these dudes.

Florey Badunga is coming into his own. I mean, my goodness. And you've got this dude on the

sideline that is one of the best to ever do it in bill self. We talked about Grant McCaslin,

man, bill self, do you believe? If not the best coach, top three doing it right now. I mean,

it's, it's insane how good he is. And so I know you mentioned earlier some holes in Iowa states

game, but they're the pieces in place. Joshua Jefferson is one of the singularly best players,

most impactful players in the nation right now. Not to mention Melon Momchilevich, this dude that

plays the three at like seven foot 42, knocking down threes at a ridiculous clip,

Tame and Lipsy and all his experience at the one. So Iowa state can do it. I just, when I look

at those top five, that to me is still the cutoff. But obviously, Arizona is the singular team that

is most in shape to do it. Why? Because as a one seed, you have all the best percentage chances.

Drake, I know that Duke is number one overall right now. I know some people love Michigan,

even more and the LJ case in injury they had over the weekend matters, but he's not a starter.

So it's not a critical blow to them. But to me, Drake told Arizona is the most complete team

in the entire nation. Say that again, I didn't hear you. The Arizona Wildcats under the leadership

of Tommy Lloyd are the most complete team in the nation. And Drake, if I got anything to say,

this will be the year that people finally stop asking the question, can Tommy Lloyd win a big

game in March because they're going to freaking do it now? Are they most complete is there for sure.

John Shire's good, man. Dusty May, Dusty May is good. Those rosters are for real. Florida,

they've been there, Yukon, they've been there. You could argue that level of experience for

Hurley and company is going to give them an edge, come March. And that if they face Arizona,

that experience could could ultimately give them the edge enough to win. If Arizona's the most

complete, does that mean then the national champions? I think they have just as good a shot at it

as any of those other teams. Now, my goodness, there are more teams with a chance to be national

champion than I can remember in recent years. Yeah, really, you think that you think that I

truly do it like because Duke Arizona and Michigan are your clear obvious. They are the top three

teams. They are going to be number one through three overall in some form or fashion. That'll be

determined because it's so such thin margins. I think it's going to be determined by championship

week who wins conference tournaments and who doesn't. Beyond that, because of the recent

losses that Houston took that three game losing street because of a little bit of struggles from

Iowa state here, I think they're kind of out of the one seed picture unless they can win the big

12 tournament. That might get them to that fourth one seed, but right now as we sit here today,

Drake, that fourth one seed is between Florida and Yukon. They have wildly the inside track on

that. But then so those top five, I all really think can do it. But beyond that, you've got the

pedigree of Houston. They just did it. I mean, it was them in Houston last year and the Florida

back court is getting better. They're still not there. Now, history would tell us that Florida can't

be national champions because every national champion in the 64 team era has hit at least 33%

of their threes or better. Florida is multiple percentage points beneath that. So they would have

to do something historically out of the mold to win the national championship. So I will not be

bracket, but I do think that they could be a one seed if they run the table here. But beyond that,

like Michigan State, Texas Tech, Illinois talent. Yeah, dude, I know they've taken a couple of

losses here. They lost to Michigan over the weekend. I believe in what Illinois is doing. They

just got Kyle and Boswell back from injury. Man, Keaton Wagler, Wagler, excuse me. Oh my goodness.

In this year of the freshman, he's one of them. So yeah, I think there are a host of teams that

could come out and win this thing. But very easily any one of them could be the big 12 because there

will not be another conference that will have three one and two seeds, but the big 12 will.

I, I do want to shout out Elislaw of Molotov of Illinois and his ability to come off the bench

and score. Well, that's not an actual, let's say that's not a Illinois player. At least five people

listening to like, yeah, man, he's been, yeah, I might. Yeah, dude, you start throwing continents

together. And then yeah, like that, the Eastern block is strong in champagne. Probably a guy that

plays for Illinois, I guess. They're right. Yeah, sure. That the way the Brad Underwood is built

that that roster this year. I think they're as good as Sean as any Brad Underwood team in the

last five seasons to make a run and win a national championship. They're kind of again, what I hate

is let's say Illinois is a three seed. That's just there's a tangible gap that I find so much

more extreme than usual between an Illinois and a Duke or between an Illinois and Arizona. And

maybe it was that way three years ago. This is just recency bias, but it feels like the gap.

I mean, one in three is massive because of how good due to the portal in IEL, the top of college

basketball is and and Pete Susa ESPN play my play joined the show and said, you know, the days of

St. Peter's are over because of in IEL in the portal. It's going to be really hard to do.

But here's the, the, the other part of that though, Drake is that a lot of those guys that would

have been 12 13 14 and 15 on Duke Spence that were five stars are now not on Duke's roster.

They're playing on some of these three seeds. And so in that regard, like some of that wealth

is spread out more and that's where it works and where you get some of these. Now a lot of them

aren't going to St. Peter's, but you look at I like I'm what I'm very curious to see just

following this rabbit trail for a second is last year we had so much chocolate does that happen

again, because I'm not buying it as the thing yet. But if that happens two or three years in

a row, then we got a serious conversation on our hands. And so a lot of it is going to fall

this shit like because with all the undefeatedness of Miami Ohio, they're not the best mid-major

team in the nation this year. It's St. Louis by far the bill, the billikins would blast Miami

Ohio on a neutral floor. That's good. Isaac shade. You can find him on Twitter at Isaac shade

S C H A D E with lucked on college basketball, lucked on Tariots. This has been always will be

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