The Big Ten plans to stick with a 20-game conference schedule for men’s basketball and an 18-game schedule for women’s basketball when it expands to 18 teams next season.
The conference also announced that 15 of the 18 members will qualify for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments once USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington arrive from the Pac-12. The Big Ten currently allows all 14 of its members to participate in the conference tournaments.
The Big Ten announced Tuesday the 15-team tournaments would maintain the current five-day schedule. The new format will have the top four seeds earning a double bye and the fifth through ninth seeds earning a single bye.
Big Ten officials said the regular-season conference schedules would remain at 20 for the men and 18 for the women in part to allow for nonconference scheduling flexibility and to remain consistent with the formats of peer conferences.
The conference plans to consider competitive balance, geography and traditional rivalries in determining which opponents a team will face twice in a season.
