The Big Ten has announced that it will continue to have a 20 game conference season in men’s basketball and an 18 game season in women’s basketball, and that both conference tournaments will include only the top 15 teams in the conference, with teams 1-4 getting double byes and teams 5-9 getting a single bye.
For those who need it spelled out (like I did), here’s how it works:
Wednesday
10 vs 15
11 vs 14
12 vs 13
Thursday
5 vs 12/13
6 vs 11/14
7 vs 10/15
8 vs 9
Friday
1 vs 8/9
2 vs 7/10/15
3 vs 6/11/14
4 vs 5/12/13
So there’s only one extra game vs the current format and only two teams (8 & 9) with byes who will know their initial matchup. Currently, the 7/10 teams also know theirs.
It’ll be interesting to see how they do tickets for Wednesday. I hope they just keep it one session, with a late afternoon game and two night games. The venue concessions should like that because hopefully more people would eat in the arena. It doesn’t make sense to me to break it into two sessions, with the first one only being one game. Are there any other leagues doing a 15-team format already?
-Michael
ACC has 15 teams for this season until Stanford Cal and SMU join next year. I don’t know how they do the first session.
With a 20 game men’s schedule that means a RR + 3 teams you play twice.
With an 18 game women’s schedule that means a RR + 1 team that you play twice. Might almost make sense to drop down to a 17 game RR and encourage schools to add a strong non-conference team.
I wonder if Indiana and Purdue will schedule a non-conference game again if they only have a single matchup a given year.
I think protecting your in-state home-home is important and would love to see it in ours and I’m sure Michigan and State would prefer it.