IRVING, Texas – The Big 12 Conference has unveiled the preseason awards and coaches’ poll for the upcoming season. League head coaches voted on the honors and were not allowed to vote for their own team.
Oklahoma State was selected as the top team in the preseason coaches’ poll, marking the first time it has been voted atop the poll in program history. It is the sixth-straight season a different team has been voted first in the annual preseason poll.
The Cowgirls picked up two of the annual preseason player honors as Audi Crooks was voted Preseason Player of the Year and Liv McGill garnered Preseason Newcomer of the Year honors.
TCU, the two-time defending Big 12 women’s basketball regular season champion, was voted second in the poll and had Jessie-May Hall collect Preseason Freshman of the Year recognition.
Crooks repeats as the Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year and is Oklahoma State’s first recipient of the award. The center from Algona, Iowa is a three-time All-American and finished the 2025-26 season as the second-leading scorer in the country (25.8 points per game). Crooks holds the record for the fewest games played to reach 2,000 career points in Big 12 history (89 games) and has scored in double figures in 98 straight games, the longest active streak in NCAA women’s basketball.
McGill started 68 games during her two seasons at Florida and became the 28
th player in program history to score at least 1,000 career points. The guard from Minneapolis shot 43% from the field during those two seasons while averaging double-digit points per game in her first two collegiate seasons. The 2026 First Team All-SEC selection collected honorable mention All-America honors from the Associated Press and USBWA following her sophomore campaign. McGill is OSU’s first Preseason Newcomer of the Year since Marisha Wallace in the 2013-14 season.
Hall previously competed for the Hornsby Spiders, the top semi-professional basketball league in Australia, where she led the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game for three seasons. The guard from Sydney, Australia averaged 19.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.9 steals per game across nine outings in 2026. Hall is the first Horned Frog to be named the league’s Preseason Freshman of the Year.
The Preseason All-Big 12 Team consists of 10 players. Kansas joined Oklahoma State with two players on the team, while Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Colorado, TCU and West Virginia each have one player on the team.
A complete preview of the season will take place as the Conference returns to Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center for the Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball Media Days from Tuesday, Oct. 20, to Wednesday, Oct. 21. Each institution’s men’s and women’s basketball programs will participate on the same day, creating a unified platform to highlight the depth and strength of the league. The event will air each day on ESPNU from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT, with additional coverage throughout the day on ESPN+.
The regular season will begin Monday, Nov. 2, with league play set to start Saturday, Dec. 19. All 16 teams will head to Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center for the 2027 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament from Wednesday, March 3 through Sunday/Monday, March 7/8^.
The Big 12 had eight teams selected to the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, matching the league record set in 2008. It marked the third consecutive season that the league has sent at least seven teams to March Madness. The Conference finished the regular season as one of just two leagues nationally to have 75% of its teams ranked within the top 60 of the NET and had the second-best regular season record among Power Four leagues in games against other P4 teams.
2026-27 Monster Energy Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll
- Oklahoma State (7) – 215 points
- TCU (6) – 212 points
- Baylor (2) – 199 points
- West Virginia (1) – 186 points
- Kansas – 160 points
- Arizona State – 143 points
- BYU – 137 points
- Colorado – 126 points
- K-State – 121 points
- Texas Tech – 103 points
- Iowa State – 78 points
- Utah – 77 points
- Arizona – 55 points
- Cincinnati – 43 points
- Houston – 38 points
- UCF – 27 points
(first-place votes)
2026-27 Monster Energy Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason Honors
Preseason Player of the Year: Audi Crooks, Oklahoma State
Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Liv McGill, Oklahoma State
Preseason Freshman of the Year: Jessie-May Hall, TCU
All-Big 12 Preseason Team
McKinna Brackens, Arizona State
Taliah Scott, Baylor*
Delaney Gibb, BYU*
Zyanna Walker, Colorado
Jaliya Davis, Kansas
S’Mya Nichols, Kansas*
Audi Crooks, Oklahoma State*
Liv McGill, Oklahoma State
Clara Silva, TCU
Gia Cooke, West Virginia
Players are sorted alphabetically by school
*Indicates unanimous selection
^Should BYU advance to the Championship game, it will be played Monday, March 8.