Mike Rhoades calls out format of Big Ten Tournament: 'I think that's horses***'

Penn State’s Mike Rhoades is no fan of the new format of the Big Ten Tournament. He has made that abundantly clear after yet another loss for his team.

With the postseason just a week or so away, Rhoades was asked about the conference’s new bracket, which will leave the final three teams out of the field. He said the layout was “horses***” considering what the powers that in the league are taking from the players at those three programs.

“Yeah, I think that’s horses***, to be honest with you,” Rhoades stated. “You know, we, we talk about, everybody bangs their chest about student-athlete experience. And then we’re in the Big Ten and we’re keeping three teams out of it? And you’ve seen how we played today. You know, we had a tough stretch. We had a crazy schedule too. But I don’t think you take away experiences from student-athletes. I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s unprofessional. I don’t think it’s – the leaders got to do a better job talking that through.

“So, I just – there’s a lot of hypocrites right now in college athletics when it comes to, we want to take care of the student-athletes, the student-athlete experience, and then, we’re in the Big Ten and we’re keeping people out of it. We didn’t even do that in Division III when I was at Randolph-Macon.”

As of February 28th, Washington and Penn State are likely to be two of the three teams that miss the conference tournament. Iowa, USC, Northwestern, and Minnesota as well as Rutgers and Nebraska are then at risk of being the third. The rest will be a part of the opening round of the event on March 12th in Indianapolis.

Still, whether talking about the league brackets or the final bracket, March is meant for moments of opportunity.

For example, Rhoades recalled what the Nittany Lions did just last season. They won their first game by nine against Michigan before losing in the second round by a tip-in basket with five seconds left to Indiana.

“Last year, we went to the tournament and we beat a team. And, if we had one box out, we beat Indiana. Now we win two games,” Rhoades said. “You don’t think we can do that this year if we went?”

Expansion has changed a lot of things for a lot of teams in each conference. That includes this on the court in the Big Ten – with it ending the season for Penn State a week earlier than it usually could end.

“Not a fan of it, even if I was in the top-three of the league,” said Rhoades. “I think you never take away experiences and opportunities for young people and us adults should be on top of that. Probably get in trouble for saying it.”