How Big Ten men’s, women’s basketball will look with four new teams (and no Caitlin Clark)

ROSEMONT, Ill. — Count Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti among the college sports leaders touting a larger NCAA Tournament for men’s and women’s basketball.

In June, conference commissioners saw a pair of future models that could grow the NCAA Tournament from 68 teams to 72 or 76. The expansion could come as early as the 2025-26 season, The Athletic previously reported.

“I think there’s some positive feelings towards expansion in our league,” Petitti said at Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball media days. “I just need to hear more about how (the seeding) would work, depending on how many teams they add, what the site looks like, what the first two days look like, because it’s just not as simple as saying add more teams.”

Petitti said he did not support overhauling the selection process or securing additional automatic qualifiers beyond the conference tournament champions. “We’re committed to the NCAA Tournament the way it is,” he said.

Tournament expansion was one of many basketball-related topics the second-year commissioner discussed last week. Petitti also shed light on the league’s scheduling models for both men’s and women’s basketball, opportunities to capitalize on the popularity of women’s basketball post-Caitlin Clark and taking the men’s Big Ten tournament to Las Vegas.

Here are the highlights.

The post-Caitlin Clark era

Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball program brought the sport unprecedented levels of attention and media consumption. Of the Hawkeyes’ 39 games last season, 37 were sellouts or arena attendance records. Eight different media companies set women’s basketball viewership records for Clark games, including the 19.9 million who watched the national championship game on ABC.

Petitti understands the challenges of replicating the numbers drawn by a generational talent and personality like Clark. But the Big Ten also has its share of star power to advertise for 2024-25, with league newcomers Juju Watkins (USC), Kiki Rice (UCLA) and Lucy Olsen (Iowa) and holdovers Alexis Markowski (Nebraska), Shyanne Sellers (Maryland) and Cotie McMahon (Ohio State).

“It seemed like almost every week we were setting a broadcast record. That’s an unfair standard going forward,” Petitti said. “Having said that, what we care about is, does that success lead to more opportunity? So the numbers might not hit the same every week, but overall, I think what I’m seeing across from broadcast partners — our partners across, and some that aren’t — is a renewed commitment to women’s basketball. It’s because it was proven success. So it can happen again.”

The league will unveil its broadcast schedule for both men’s and women’s basketball this week. Twelve regular-season women’s basketball games will air on either Fox or NBC, including eight league contests.

“We’re really trying to be as aggressive as we can and making sure those schedule decisions happen,” Petitti said. “I feel really good that we have partners that really want to invest in women’s basketball.”

Scheduling quandary

With USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in the fold, league brass wanted to build a schedule that respected rivalries, ensured every team played one another and minimized logistical challenges for an 18-team league. While not perfect — a league official received the first complaint 15 minutes after the schedule was unveiled — the league believes it hit as many principles as possible.

The men’s coaches opted to keep a 20-game slate without any “meaningful conversations” to change it, Petitti said. Each team will play three opponents twice and the other 14 schools once. The double-play opponents were chosen based on rivalry, geography and television considerations. The rotation lasts for two seasons for balance on the single-plays (home once, away once), and then double-play opponents are re-evaluated.

The women’s conference schedule remains at 18 games, with 16 single-play opponents and one double-play rivalry. Neither the men nor the women want a divisional structure.

“You want to connect the league, right?” Petitti said. “So playing everybody is really important. I think a big thing if you’ve gone to divisions or do things that’s more regional based, you kind of lose the connectivity of everybody playing everybody.

“How do you integrate the new members? Well, the best way to do it is everybody’s got to see everybody as much as possible. That’s the fastest way to grow rivalries and connect everybody.”

GO DEEPER

Ranking Big Ten basketball programs: Is anyone elite in 2024-25?

Travel and logistics

The three West Coast schools will be each other’s double-play foes in men’s basketball, while USC-UCLA and Washington-Oregon will serve as permanent double-play rivals in women’s basketball.

Of the teams’ seven games in the Central and Eastern time zones, six of them will be played as one of two stops on a single trip. For instance, USC’s women’s basketball team plays the geographic pairs of Maryland–Rutgers, Indiana-Purdue and Iowa-Wisconsin in trips that consist of one long flight and a shorter bus trip between the sites. The games are scheduled Sunday and Wednesday, creating built-in travel and preparation days. Teams heading west either play at Washington and Oregon or at USC and UCLA. It’s one major trip and two games.

“I’m optimistic that we’ve gotten hopefully all of it right, but that’s probably overly optimistic,” Petitti said. “Hopefully we got most of it right, and then we make the adjustments that we have to after you take the feedback.”

Vegas, baby

Both basketball tournaments are heading to Las Vegas once in the next four years: the women in 2027 and the men in 2028. It’s the first time the Big Ten will take its postseason tournament outside its geographic footprint.

“It’s really important to bring events closer to the new members and bring championships,” Petitti said. “That’s part of the way you integrate the four new members, is to try to bring championships closer. So I think this move to Las Vegas is really an important step in that direction.”

Indianapolis will hold both tournaments twice over the four-year block. Detroit will stage its first women’s tournament in 2028. The men’s tournament returns to Chicago in 2026.

This year marks the first season in which not every school will qualify for the conference tournament. Only 15 will participate, nudging the first day of games from two to three. Unlike the number of regular-season games, the number of teams competing in the conference tournaments generated plenty of discussion.

“There’s been a lot of back and forth on it, and that’s where we are now,” Petitti said. “There’s a lot of talk about, do you have an all-comers tournament? What’s the best way to do it?

“You still want to make sure that your top programs are successful as they advance into the NCAA Tournament and give them the best chance to be successful.”

Life after the Big Ten-ACC Challenge

With the annual Big Ten-ACC Challenge going away, Petitti and his staff are looking for ways to showcase the league and maximize interest. It can be difficult to attract eyeballs and attention considering college basketball’s season overlaps with college football and the NFL.

“We’re open in the Big Ten to talking about all different kinds of formats, whether it’s working with other conferences or doing things inside of our league,” Petitti said. “If we’re doing our jobs properly, we’re talking about that.

“There should be an evolution and creativity. You’ve seen in-season tournaments in the NBA. They are just ideas, and we should be creative about this and trying to figure out how we generate more interest. There’s a lot of nonconference events that are staged by others. I think we believe that we can do more and more of that ourselves and find ways to bring our teams together with others and play meaningful games throughout the season.”

(Photo: Adam Bettcher / Getty Images)