Big Ten to Expand Conference Men's Hoops Tournament to 18 Teams This Season

The conference will stage its largest basketball bonanza ever.

Michigan and its foes will have a tough road to Big Ten tournament glory this year. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It wasn't that long ago that the Big Ten was a fierce conference tournament holdout—only staging its first men's end-of-season competition after the 1998 season (Michigan won it). A women's tournament began just a few years prior, with Penn State winning the inaugural bracket in 1995.

How times have changed.

The Big Ten will invite all 18 teams to its men's basketball conference tournament this season, it announced Thursday afternoon on its network. The women's tournament will remain a 15-team affair. In 2025—the league's first season with an 18-team lineup—it invited 15 teams on both the men's and women's sides.

This year's tournaments are scheduled to be held in Chicago and Indianapolis, respectively. Michigan and UCLA are the defending men's and women's champions.

The men's tournament will now last six days, beginning March 10 and ending March 15. The Big Ten men's championship is traditionally the last game to go final before the NCAA tournament bracket is unveiled.

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