Big Ten Reportedly Decides on Basketball Schedule, Tournament Format For 2024-25

The Big Ten will reportedly keep the basketball regular season at 20 conference games in 2024-25, even with the additions of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington. However, there is likely a change coming to the Big Ten Tournament next year.

Changes are coming to the Big Ten soon. At the end of the academic calendar, Pac-12 schools Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington will be joining the conference, generating plenty of questions about the 2024-25 basketball schedule.

According to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, the Big Ten has decided on how it will proceed with the four new additions. Even with the conference expanding to 18 teams next season, it plans to keep the regular-season format the same.

Each team will play 20 league games for the 2024-25 season, per Rothstein's report. If that's true, here's how the basic breakdown of the schedule would look:

• 7 home-only games vs. Big Ten opponents
• 7 away-only games vs. Big Ten opponents
• 3 home-and-away games vs. Big Ten opponents

That sounds simple enough, right? But when it comes to the Big Ten Tournament, things get a little strange.

Per Rothstein's report, the Big Ten Tournament would feature only 15 teams, eliminating the bottom three teams from the field. 

It's not odd that the conference would trim some of the fat from the postseason event, but 15 is an odd number — no pun intended. A 12- or 16-team format seems much more logical.

An official announcement from the Big Ten is expected in the near future.

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