About Men's Big Ten Basketball Tournament
Conference championships aren't just automatic tickets to the NCAA tournament every March; they're prestigious mini boiler rooms of pressure for every team in a conference. The Big Ten championship is one of these gatherings, and every year, the best teams from the Midwest (and also Rutgers) descend on an arena to decide who is the best of the best. The hosts have included legendary arenas such as the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., the United Center in Chicago, the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and of course, Madison Square Garden in New York City.
While tournament settings usually open up the field for upsets, historically the Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament's most-winning seed is the #1 seed, having won eight times since 1998. That's followed by the second seed, which has won five times (seven if you count two vacated wins by Michigan and Ohio State) and the third seed, which has won twice. No other seed has won more than once, so you can expect the heavyweights to not only go deep in the tournament, but win more often than not. The biggest upset came in 2017, when Michigan crawled up from the #7 seed to win the whole thing.
Michigan State has won the most tournaments in history, with five titles in 21 tournaments. Ohio State is second, with four, and Wisconsin rounds out the Top 3 with three total wins. Unsurprisingly, legendary Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has won the most titles by a single coach, manning the helm for every single one of the Spartans' triumphs in the Big Ten tourney. On the other hand, Northwestern has fallen lowest in tournament history, compiling a 9-21 record since the first edition of the tournament. And the Wildcats' .300 winning percentage is tied for worst with Nebraska, who only joined the Big Ten in 2011.