Here’s something that won’t matter for another year and a half. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported earlier today that the Big Ten is moving towards restricting its conference tournament to 14-15 teams once the conference expands to 18 during the 2024-25 season.
Put in other words: The Big Ten is expanding to 18 schools for the 2024 football season and 2024-25 basketball season. Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC are joining the conference, if you’ve been living under a rock for the last two years.
At that point, the Big Ten is moving towards restricting its end-of-season basketball tournament to only 14-15 teams, as it is currently formatted. That would leave 3-4 schools out of the tournament, depending on the regular season standings.
NEWS: Momentum is growing for the Big Ten to only have 14 or 15 teams participate in the Big Ten Tournament when the league expands to 18 teams during the 2024-25 season, according to a source.https://t.co/x8rGpkmbDe
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) November 30, 2023
This may not be decided on for some time, and again won’t affect the sport for a year and a half. But with UCLA (No. 32 in KenPom), USC (No. 30), Washington (No. 59) and Oregon (No. 51) joining, there is sure to be continued separation between the top of the conference and the bottom.
That separation should make this decision easy, as a 18-team tournament would be a bit excessive before the NCAA Tournament begins. Rothstein’s reported solution that makes a ton of sense as we enter into the new world of the Big Ten.