Big Ten announces changes to future men's, women's basketball scheduling format

The Big Ten has announced changes for the future scheduling format for both men’s and women’s basketball.

Ahead of the addition of four new programs for the 2024-2025 academic year, the conference is making preparations to have their schedule prepared for basketball season. In a press release on Tuesday, the Big Ten revealed the way it’ll shape up, and the differences we’ll see moving forward

“As part of ongoing preparations for the addition of four new member institutions during the 2024-25 academic year, the Big Ten Conference on Tuesday announced details regarding future regular- and postseason competition structures for men’s and women’s basketball,” a press release read. “Beginning next season, both the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament fields will expand to 15 teams (from 14), a format that maintains the five-day schedule of the event, provides access to all teams in contention for postseason invitations, and will maintain a double bye for each of the top four seeds while seeds 5-9 will receive a single bye.

“Both the men’s and women’s conference schedules will remain at 20 and 18 contests, respectively, for each school. This allows for non-conference scheduling flexibility, is consistent with peer schedule formats and maximizes opportunities for NCAA postseason berths. Single-play home/away locations will rotate annually, and two-play opponents will be determined with consideration for competitive balance, geography and rivalries.”

Alas, the scheduling format was always going to change for basketball, much in the way we’ve seen football adjust to include their new member schools as conference realignment takes place. Now, we know what to expect moving forward.

With the new format, fans of the Big Ten will be elated to see some fresh and exciting matchups take place within the conference. With programs like USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joining the fray, the potential new rivalries and impressive competition are nothing to scoff at.

We’ll have to wait until next season to see the new format in action, but the Big Ten is shaping up to be one of the more exciting conferences in all of college sports, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how it all shakes out.