The rest of the Big 12 would love to see Kansas' Big 12 conference title run stopped at 12, keeping the Jayhawks one short of tying UCLA for the all-time record of consecutive regular-season league championships. Players talked about it at the league's media days prior to the start of the season and, given the league's strength from top-to-bottom, there seemed to be a decent chance that someone (Baylor, West Virginia, possibly a mystery team) would be in a position to claim the crown.

Baylor has been a top-five team and was introduced as a No. 1 seed in the eyes of the selection committee when the top 16 teams were revealed Saturday on the March Madness Preview show. The Bears are on par with Kansas in almost every metric other than the conference standings, and they lost even more ground in that area on Monday night with a 84-78 loss at Texas Tech.

Despite the loss, Baylor will remain a No. 1 seed, according to CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm. Here's why Palm is not dropping them in his bracket:

Despite the loss, the Bears will remain on the top line of the bracket for now. When the committee released its top 16, chair Mark Hollis talked about how there was a clear line between the No. 1 seeds and the No. 2s. Part of that is that all of the No. 2 seeds have at least five losses. Baylor has played a strong schedule and still has a high number of quality wins, so it still belong ahead of North Carolina.

This is the best team that Scott Drew has had in Waco since the 30-win season and Elite Eight run in 2012. The development and emergence of Johnathan Motley as one of the country's best has paired with top-notch team defense to make Baylor a team that is still very capable of making a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. But the Bears have dropped three of five this month and are on the verge of missing their shot at knocking the Jayhawks from their perch.

Even though the game was clunky (53 combined fouls will do that), this is a great win for Texas Tech, an outsider to the tournament picture for now. Chris Beard and the Red Raiders fell one point short of knocking off Kansas on Saturday but got that first signature home win against Baylor.

Baylor's recent slide started Feb. 1 at Kansas, and now their only shot to jump back into the conference title race is to knock off the Jayhawks in Waco on Saturday. The head-to-head win, splitting the season series and bringing Kansas back to the pack in the Big 12 standings, can reverse some of what was lost on Monday night in Lubbock.