Big Ten Adds an End-of-Season Conference Volleyball Tournament for 2026

The league will move to a 17-game schedule to make way for a tournament in Fishers, Indiana.

Nebraska players and staff celebrate their third straight Big Ten title in November after defeating Penn State. The league is adding a tournament at the end of the 2026 regular season. | Amarillo Mullen

The Big Ten Volleyball Tournament is officially happening. 

A year after the SEC brought back its tournament and proved successful, the Big Ten is adding an end-of-season tournament for the 2026 season. 

The Big Ten will host a 15-team tournament at the Fishers Event Center in Fishers, Indiana. Play will start with the first round on Friday, Nov. 20, and culminate with a championship match on Wednesday, Nov. 25. 

Nebraska coach Dani Busboom Kelly said she is excited for the tournament. She said she saw the benefit of playing in a single-elimination environment to prepare teams for the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m fired up for it,” she said. “I feel like it’s going to add some depth to our season. It’s a new challenge.”

Here's how the @B1GVolleyball bracket would shake out (it's essentially the same as @B1Gwbball uses): pic.twitter.com/NKaQeQP8zS

— Emily Ehman (@emilyehman) April 16, 2026

Three matches will be played in the opening round of the tournament, followed by four second-round matches, with the fifth through ninth seeds earning a bye. The top four teams will receive a double bye to the quarterfinals. The tournament will take a day off between the quarterfinals and semifinals on Monday, Nov. 23. Ticket and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.

Fishers Event Center is a 7,500-seat arena located in the northeast suburbs of Indianapolis. It is the home of the Indy Ignite of Major League Volleyball, which hosted the league’s All-Star Match in 2025. The Indy Fuel of the ECHL and Fishers Freight of the Indoor Football League also play in the facility. 

With the addition of the tournament, the Big Ten season will be shortened from 20 matches to 17 by eliminating each school’s three home-and-away series. Each program will now play each conference member only once. This is the first time the league has altered its schedule since 1991, when it moved to 20 games when Penn State joined the conference. 

“It is an incredibly exciting time not only for volleyball, but for Big Ten Conference volleyball as a whole,” Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley said. “The introduction of the first Big Ten Volleyball Tournament marks a significant milestone, and it is a testament to the vision and growth of this league. Most importantly, it provides our student-athletes with an even greater platform – putting them center stage and showcasing their talent, dedication and passion at the highest level.”

Busboom Kelly said the only downside of the smaller schedule is that Nebraska will lose one or two home games each year with the shortened regular season. For the Huskers, which will draw 10,000 fans for home games in the renovated Devaney Center, the loss of home games could result in a drop in revenue. 

For years when they have only eight league home games, Busboom Kelly said NU will likely adjust its schedule to include more nonconference matches at Devaney. 

Last year, the SEC brought back its tournament after discontinuing it in 2005. Kentucky won the league tournament before advancing all the way to the national title match, where it lost to fellow SEC member, Texas A&M

Texas A&M coach Jamie Morrison said he was iffy on the SEC Tournament. Still, he saw the benefits of it as the Aggies won their first match over Vanderbilt before falling to Texas in the semifinals in Savannah, Georgia. Even though it was launched to increase revenue and raise the league’s profile, Morrison was complimentary about SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey for putting on a high-quality tournament. 

“I think they did an amazing job with that,” he said before the championship match. “All of a sudden, we got really good volleyball against really good teams in pressure situations.”

Rebekah Allick holds the Big Ten champions trophy. Nebraska has won the last three regular-season titles. The Big Ten is adding an end-of-season tournament in 2026 in Fishers, Indiana. | Amarillo Mullen

The Big Ten has never organized an end-of-the-season tournament since it began play in 1981. The closest it came was in the first season when conference play was organized into pool play of two five-team groups. The top two teams in each pool were seeded into a single-elimination bracket with a third-place playoff in October.

Last summer at the Big Ten Media Days, Grace McNamara, the Big Ten’s volleyball sport administrator, said the league was keeping a close eye on how the first year of the SEC’s tournament played out. 

“We’re absolutely going to be watching that and looking at how that impacts their postseason selection and their success in the postseason,” she said. 

Even though teams could play back-to-back matches and up to four matches over five days, the additional rest over the Thanksgiving holiday should provide enough time to recover fully. 

Busboom Kelly didn’t play in an ACC conference tournament while at Louisville, but the league schedule occasionally wrapped up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. She said even though they had a couple of practices before the NCAA Tournament field was announced, it set them up for success in the postseason by providing a mental and physical rest. 

“It really does feel like it starts a new season,” Busboom Kelly said. “When you have nine days (between matches), it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re done with that season. This is all new.’ So it’s just mentally, you get a different headspace versus playing a game on Saturday night. Selection Sunday, and Monday, you’re getting ready to prep for a Thursday game — that’s pretty fast turnaround.”