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According to a new report, there is growing momentum for some teams to be left out of playing in the Big Ten basketball tournament in the 2024-25 season.
Apparently, some people associated with the league believe that adding UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington will make it too difficult for every team to participate in a post-season tourney, John Rothstein of College Hoops Today reports.
The addition of those four universities will bring the membership in the Big Ten to 18 schools.
Currently, all 14 of the Big Ten schools compete in the year-end conference tournament and there is speculation that the league will try to keep the number of Big Ten tournament qualifying teams to a similar number after the former Pac-12 teams join.
Last season, Minnesota finished in last place in the Big Ten with a 2-17 record. Ohio State at 5-15 wasn’t far ahead of the Golden Gophers. So teams such as them not making the tournament wouldn’t be a tremendous loss from a competition standpoint.
However, in 2022-23, ten teams finished the season at .500 or better in conference – a rare display of parity. Purdue finished on top at 15-5.
Comparing apples to oranges, UCLA went 18-2, USC went 14-6, Oregon was 12-8, and Washington was 8-12 in the Pac 12 last year.
Should they decide to cap the conference tournament at 14, it could mean that if parity prevails again a given year teams with .500 or better records could be left out of the dance.
Then again, the lowest seed to win the Big Ten basketball tournament since it first took place in 1998 was an 8th seed, Michigan in 2017. The Wolverines went 10–8 in conference that year and ended up making it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.
Iowa in 2001 (6th seed) and 2022 (5th seed), and Michigan in 2018 (5th seed) are the only other teams seeded outside the top four to ever win the Big Ten tournament.
So the odds of a team seeded 15th through 18th ever making any kind of run would seem to be extremely unlikely.