It’s been more than a quarter of a century since it happened. President George W. Bush was not yet in office the last time a Big Ten Conference team won the men’s basketball national title.
So is it foolish to bet that the conference will end that drought this spring? Or maybe… it’s just their turn?
It is well known that the last Big Ten champion in men’s basketball was the 1999-2000 Michigan State Spartans, with Mateen Cleaves at the helm and Tom Izzo at the ripe old age of 45. Since then, the Big Ten has had moments when it looked like the best league in the sport, but has failed to deliver another champion in part because of the unpredictability of the NCAA Tournament.
If there was ever a year you could bet that drought would end, this was it.
The Big Ten has five legitimate national title contenders: Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Illinois and Purdue. It may not be the best conference overall (Penn State, Northwestern, Maryland and Oregon really weigh down the bottom), but there’s no debate about which league is strongest at the top.
To wit: The aforementioned quintet occupies positions 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 in this week’s AP poll . The SEC’s top-ranked team, Arkansas, is No. 15. In KenPom’s net efficiency rankings, Big Ten teams rank No. 2, No. 4, No. 6, No. 8 and No. 10 before you meet your first SEC team.
Aside from Purdue, which has fallen into a three-game losing streak, the other four Big Ten teams we analyzed are either 9-1 or 8-1 in the league, a real fight for the top. The SEC contenders, none of whom except Vanderbilt (!) looked particularly good in non-conference games, have been downgraded lately. With a 6-1 record in the league, the leader of the SEC—anyone know?—is Texas A&M, ranked 40th in the NET rankings.
It’s a refreshing change of pace after the SEC included 14 of its 16 teams in the 2025 tournament. I remember writing last year that the SEC justified at least 12, something controversial at the time if you don’t live in the South (and I don’t, for example, know how to react to a blizzard). But four of its schools reached the Elite Eight and Florida won the title, so the excitement about the SEC was partially justified.
Not anymore. When Texas A&M, Vandy and John Calipari’s Razorbacks are your best hopes, you’ve lost your throne. I’d listen to the arguments that the Big 12 is right up there with the Big Ten, with its Arizona, Houston, Iowa State and Texas Tech team, and I’d rather bet on the ACC producing the national champion than the SEC just because of Duke.
But my mind goes back to the Big Ten.
On Tuesday we saw one of the best games of the year, when Michigan trailed almost the entire time before scoring the final six points to cap a 75-72 comeback and hand an inferior Nebraska team its first loss. Both teams deserved to win that game; both made just under 50% of their shots and each excelled in their own areas of strength. To paraphrase a cliché, it was a heavyweight fight.
Guess what? There’s a packed card of heavyweight fights over the next week and a half.
- Friday: No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 7 Michigan State
- Domingo: N.° 9 Illinois contra N.° 5 Nebraska
- Saturday, Feb. 7: No. 9 Illinois at No. 7 Michigan State
Each team has its own identity, from the Cornhuskers’ collection of underrecruited, less athletic players (six of whom are from Nebraska, plus kids from the Netherlands and Turkey) to the powerful Michigan machine led by a coach who led FAU to a Final Four, to Illinois’ merry band of Balkan brothers.
If you like this, it’s exciting to watch. And I’m sure one of them will be cutting down the nets in April.
Worth a look
