So why is ESPN GameDay in Lawrence for KU-Baylor once again? Let Jay Bilas explain.

This marks the second straight college basketball season that ESPN’s GameDay crew has headed to Allen Fieldhouse to broadcast its popular hour-long morning show before a Big 12 Conference clash between Kansas and Baylor.

Yes, GameDay, here for a 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday show in KU’s tradition-rich building prior to a 5 p.m. KU-BU contest, also was in Lawrence for the Jayhawks’ 87-71 win over the Bears on Feb. 18, 2023 and in Waco, Texas, for KU’s 64-61 victory over Baylor on Feb. 11, 2020.

ESPN anaylst Jay Bilas on Friday explained the network’s interest in airing showdowns between Bill Self’s Jayhawks and Scott Drew’s Bears.

“Kansas has been the gold standard in this league and among the gold standard nationally, and Baylor over the last 10 years or so, maybe before that, has been right there,” Bilas said in an interview with two reporters on Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“It’s been, ‘Kansas has won this many games. Baylor has won just a few less.’ I think they (Bears) have been consistently over that period the biggest rival (to KU) for a Big 12 championship. They’ve (Bears) won a national championship in that period. Their record against ranked teams … They are in the same ballpark (as KU). Kansas hasn’t had anybody in its ballpark for a while, so it just makes for a great game,” Bilas added.

No. 4-ranked KU (18-5, 6-4) and No. 13 Baylor (17-5, 6-3) are 5-5 in the last 10 meetings.

“It feels to me like the players know that, ‘Hey, this is a big game.’ The fans know it too. We certainly react to that so we’re here because of the quality of the two teams playing,” Bilas said. “Not that we (GameDay crew of Bilas, Jay Williams, Rece Davis, Seth Greenberg, Andraya Carter) are the bellwether of everything important but we are following what’s important and it’ s important to these two programs. It’s important to the Big 12, so it’s important to us,” Bilas added.

Asked about the importance of Saturday’s game, GameDay’s Jay Williams said: “I think whenever you defend home court going against a team like Baylor, considering the magnitude of ranked teams that we have, I think every game in this conference is massive. I think that’s the part that makes it great. Each and every single night, when you look across the landscape of college basketball, you have Purdue. You have some other teams out there — UConn playing in the Big East. I think top to bottom you get the best matchups in this conference.”

Williams named Purdue and UConn when asked to pinpoint the teams he’s covered this season most likely to make the Final Four.

“I know the Big 12 has more ranked teams (KU, Houston, Baylor, Iowa State, BYU, Texas Tech) than any other conference. I don’t think there are a lot of national contenders in this conference, I think Kansas is truly the only national contender,” Williams stated.

TCU, Texas and Oklahoma received votes in last week’s AP poll. K-State is coming off a big win over KU.

“Ten,” Bilas said, asked about Big 12 teams with a chance at an NCAA Tournament bid. “I think it’s projecting out that way now. I mean there’s a long way to go. Depending on how some of the teams do that are at the end of the line, relative to the end of the line of some other leagues, it (10) is a strong possibility.”

Bilas described the Big 12 this way: “I don’t know that this is the strongest the league has ever been at the top. I wouldn’t say that. I would say it’s never been stronger (overall). I can’t think of any league that’s been stronger top to bottom than this league. I think it’s the best league in the country, but that doesn’t mean the champion is going to come out of here. We’ll see, but it certainly could.

“Every game is a quad-one game it seems like,” Bilas added. “I know there may be one or two that aren’t. You go on the road against any team in this league you better play really, really well. That’s not always been the case. Maybe in past years if you were one of top teams you could play some of the teams in the middle or bottom and not play your best and still win. It requires way more to win now than other years as I can recall.”

The parity certainly makes for interesting games, such as Baylor vs. KU on Saturday and the rematch set for March 2 in Waco.

“I think most programs would rather have high-value games to play and the fans would rather see those. I think the players would rather play in them,” Bilas said. “I played (at Duke) a long time ago, but when my teammates and I get together we’re not talking about the games we played against quad-four teams. There are great memories (from the bigger games).”