With the addition of the four former Pacific 12 Conference schools, the Big Ten Conference Basketball Tournament will be a 15-team bracket for the first time in league history.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

October 3, 2024

ROSEMONT, Ill. — For the first time in the history of the league, the Big Ten Basketball Tournament will not host every team in the conference.

The league announced three of the league programs will have their campaign end at the end of the 2024-25 regular season as the 2025 conference tournament will be a five-day, 15-team bracket at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. from March 5-9.

“The 15 (team) decision was made obviously with a lot of conversation with coaches on the issue and it involved us trying to figure out the best way to stage the event,” Big Ten Conference commissioner Tony Petitti said. “There’s a lot of balancing forces like how many days you play, how teams arrive coming off playing on the final weekend of the regular season and protecting your top seeds and giving them the best chance to succeed.”

The league tournament will feature the top three programs receiving double byes into the quarterfinal round and the event will start with two games feature the No. 12, 13, 14 and 15th teams in the league standings.

In her first two years at Illinois, Shauna Green has lifted the Illini program so they’ve not been in any danger of being among the bottom four of the previously set 14-team Big Ten Conference and therefore, playing in the first round of the event. Before Green left Dayton to become the 10th head coach in program history, Illinois was in the first round of play of the league tournament for seven straight years from 2016-21.

“I think we’re comfortable with 15 (teams qualifying for the tournament) but there’s been a lot of back and forth on it,” Petitti said. “That’s where we are now. Maybe eventually we’ll go back to an all-comers tournament but we’re doing the same thing on the men’s and women’s side of being at 15. We feel like it’s the best way to get through the week. Remember, you want to make sure our top priority is that our top programs advance and are given the best chance to have the best seed leading into the NCAA Tournament.”

Earlier this summer, the Big Ten Conference announced that Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit will be the future venues for the women’s tournament over the next four season.

The 2025 TIAA Big Ten women’s tournament in Indianapolis will take place March 5-9, followed by the 2025 TIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament from March 12-16. The women’s tournament will remain in Indianapolis in 2026 before moving to Las Vegas in 2027 and Detroit in 2028. This will mark the first time Big Ten Tournaments will be held in Las Vegas or Detroit.