This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I know we're a basketball blog here at Big 12 Hoops, but that doesn't mean we don't like the gridiron and eveything associated with it.

That's why we're letting you know that EA Sports NCAA Football 2011 is available... now. Go get yours today (and if the only reason you are getting it is to stomp on Tim Tebow's face, then that is fine by us).

But seriously folks, if you have played the game in the past, you understand.  And if you don't know, now you know.

When you go to particular school or grow up a around college football  you are more than just a fan. It’s who you are. We thought we could leverage this pride in your roots and show that ‘where you come from’ is more than just a statement about geography. By positioning NCAA Football 11 as a game that understands this pride and is authentic to these traditions, the takeaway should be that anything that is in college football is in NCAA Football11.
 
And this doesn’t just include game play (though that’s a huge part of it). It’s rivals and mascots; it’s legends and stories. It’s those things that are at the very fabric of the game itself. Of course the game is great this year as well. With authentic entrances, mascots and specific offenses for each team the term “where I come from” takes on a much larger meaning. While playing NCAA Football 11 is ultimately a great sports sim, it should also give you a sense of the pride and emotion one has for being a fan of a team they will never not be a part of.

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Thanks to conference expansion (who would have believed it could be mentioned in a positive light), a top ten Big XII piece can be all-inclusive.  No more worrying about whether Corn Huskers will field a basketball team or about the possible jet lag from the MST (not to mention the altitude and cold weather).  Husking corn clearly was too dull to fit in with the cyclones and ferocious beasts of the bigger conference, so I think Nebraska will be welcomed by the badgers and gophers in their new home.  Truthfully, the buffaloes probably just spooked.  So now, let me present that 2010-2011 Big XII Preseason Top 10.

10. Oklahoma Sooners
9.  Iowa State Cyclones
8.  Oklahoma State Cowboys
7.  Texas A&M Aggies
6.  Texas Longhorns
5.  Texas Tech Red Raiders
4.  Missouri Tigers
3.  Kansas Jayhawks
2.  Baylor Bears
1.  Kansas State Wildcats

Explanations after the jump.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Here, in no particular order are the top story lines for the upcoming Big 12 basketball season.

1. Will Texas Tech coach Pat Knight be on the sidelines in Lubbock after next season?

2. Colorado had a rising squad last year, but with a new coach and their eventual departure, can they match the level of play they had last year?

3. Texas was the biggest underachieving squad in the country last year. With two 5-star recruits coming in can they get their act together and play like a team?

4. Missouri has a bunch of talent returning and one of the best recruiting classes in the country coming in. Is this the year they reach the Final Four?

5. With LaceDarius Dunn returning and Uber freshman Perry Jones joining the team, can Baylor continue to be a feared team?

6.  Can Kansas win its 7^th straight Big 12 regular season title?

7. Can Nebraska get any worse?

8. Last year the conference had the #1 RPI in the nation, can it keep its title as the toughest conference in the country?

9. Kansas St lost Denis Clemente and Dominique Sutton. Can they still compete at the top of the conference?

10. Texas A&M finished fourth in the conference last season, but lost Donald Sloan. Can they rebound?

What story lines would you add?

In order to engage college sports fans, EA Sports is asking SB Nation bloggers a series of questions to coincide with the launch of their NCAA Football 11.

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

As I said Monday, I haven't been a lifer when it comes to the Big XII, but that doesn't mean I'm completely oblivious to the conference's prestigious history.  Not surprisingly, much of this history comes from the kingpin of college sports (at least financially): football.  Combine that fact with the fact that EA Sports NCAA Football 2011 is arguably the best football game about to be released next week, and I felt compelled to include basketball and football in this note on Big XII history.

As most people know, the Big XII reached its almost current state when the Big 8 added four Texas schools (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor) from the imploded Southwest Conference in 1996.  The Big 8 (or Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association as it was called back in the day) included only three Big 8 schools (Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri) when it was founded in 1907.  Quickly, Iowa State (1908) and K-State (1913) joined the ranks, Nebraska took a short leave of absence, and Oklahoma joined by 1919.  Oklahoma State (when it was still Oklahoma A&M) joined briefly in 1925, and it permanently joined in 1958.  Colorado was the last piece of the Big 8 puzzle, joining in 1947.

Needless to say, the conference has had its share of history over the past century.  See the greatest moments in conference history, team by team, after the jump.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Ever had a time in your life when the stars just aligned and, with no help of your own, your wishes came true?

This happened to me during Mizzou's magical 2008-09 Elite Eight run.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't always a fan of the Big XII.  In fact, I'm embarrassed to admit how many years it took me to draw a significant distinction between the Big XII and the Big 10...  Luckily in recent years college basketball has really exploded as far as televised games (or maybe I just take more note of it).  This alone has allowed me to love college basketball more than ever before.  Allow me to explain.

I grew up in the heart of ACC territory: my house was just 3 hours from Duke, NC State, UNC, and Wake Forest.  North Carolina is a basketball state: the home of Tobacco Road, 11 basketball national championships, and Stephen Curry's unbelievable NCAA tourney performance (along with countless others).  With no football national titles to speak of (not counting Appalachian State's 1-AA dominance), the last great D1 football moment came when the aforementioned Mountaineers upset Michigan.  Anyone who argues football is king is probably a State fan veiling the mediocrity of its recent basketball squads with half-hearted insults to Duke and UNC football.      

More after the Jump.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I grew up in Columbus, OH, home of The Ohio State University, and started attending Mizzou in the mid 90's when to say that their football program was sub-par would be an understatement. 

So during my first football game as a freshman in Columbia, I was appalled at the fact that 90% of the student body left at halftime (impressed, mind you, at the amount of empty whiskey and rum bottles they left behind). That sour taste never did quite leave my mouth, even later on in my collegiate career as Mizzou football was actually winning and going to bowl games.

I mean for the first 18 years of my life I was accustomed to being with 100,000 of my closest friends during home football games, and at OSU nobody dared to leave until the band finished playing Carmen Ohio at the conclusion of each game.

I did attend all those football games my freshman year, and actually didn't miss a football game the entire time I was in Columbia, but something was missing for me... Having suffered through an inaugural 3-8 football season, halftime mass exits and my fair share of empty whiskey bottles I knew I needed more.

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To coincide with the release of EA Sports NCAA Football 11 on Tuesday, July 13, EA Sports and SB Nation have teamed up to produce a series of posts by college blogs on their fandom. Over the next week you'll see posts across by most SB Nation college bloggers on different aspects of their fandom. Enjoy ours here at Big 12 Hoops, and all of the others across the Nation.