Penn State Coach Mike Rhoades Rants About New Big Ten Tournament Format

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Conference tournaments used to represent a chance for every team to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

Take NC State last season for example. The Wolfpack lost seven of their last nine regular season games and were out of the NCAA Tournament picture, barring an ACC Tournament title run. And that's exactly what they did.

NC State carried that momentum into the NCAA Tournament, where it made a miraculous run to the Final Four as a No. 11 seed. But due to conference expansion, some of those Cinderella stories won't be possible this year.

When the Big Ten expanded to 18 teams with the addition of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington in 2024-25, it changed the format of its conference basketball tournament. Instead of every team making it, only the top 15 teams in the conference will participate in the 2025 Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis.

After Wednesday's 83-78 loss at Indiana, Penn State's chances grew to be one of the three teams left out of the Big Ten Tournament. The Nittany Lions fell to 15-14 overall and 5-13 in Big Ten play.

Washington sits below them at 4-13, and there are four teams at 6-11. So with a strong finish to the regular season, Penn State could still get its shot at a Big Ten Tournament run.

But regardless of his team's standing, Penn State coach Mike Rhoades vehemently disagrees with the new Big Ten Tournament format.

"I think that's horse shit to be honest with you," Rhoades said. "We talk about – everybody bangs their chest about the student-athlete experience, and then we're the Big Ten and we're keeping three teams out of it? And you've seen how we played today. We had a tough stretch. We had a crazy schedule, too. But I don't think you take away experiences from student-athletes. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's not professional. I don't think it's – the leaders gotta do a better job talking that through because last year we went to the tournament and we beat a team and if we have one box out, we beat Indiana, now we win two games. You don't think we could do that this year if we went? So I just – there's a lot of hypocrites right now in college athletics when it comes to we want to take care of the student-athletes and the student-athlete experience, and then we're in the Big Ten and we're keeping people out of it. We didn't even do that in Division III when I was at Randolph-Macon. So not a fan of it, even if I was at the top three of the league. I think you never take away experiences and opportunities for young people, and as us adults should be on top of that. I'll probably get in trouble for saying that."

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