Big Ten MCBB Conference Tournament Will Expand to Include All 18 Teams

The Big Ten men's basketball conference tournament will expand to include all 18 member schools this upcoming season, per a report from the Big Ten Network.

Matt Fortuna of The Inside Zone provided more details, noting that the tournament, which will take place in Chicago's United Center next year, will add an extra day.

The Big Ten expanded from 14 to 18 teams last year after adding USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon from the Pac-12. Last season's men's and women's basketball tournaments both featured 15 teams, with the last three squads in the 18-team standings being left out.

That will change this year, expanding the tournament to six days (Tuesday, March 10 through Sunday, March 15).

Day 1 of the tournament will now feature the No. 13 seed playing the No. 18 seed, the No. 14 seed facing the No. 17 seed and the No. 15 seed competing against the No. 16 seed.

Then the rest of the tournament, which does not feature re-seeding, will play out as it's been in the 15-team format era.

The No. 10-12 seeds will await the three Day 1 winners in the second round for the second day of the competition. The third round will then feature the No. 5 through No. 9 seeds (No. 8 will play No. 9, while the No. 5 through No. 7 teams play winners from the previous day).

The top four seeds get a bye to the quarterfinals, where they will await four winners from the prior day. It's an eight-team, single-elimination tournament at that point, playing out until a champion is crowned on Sunday afternoon, right before the March Madness bracket is revealed.

Michigan, a No. 3 seed, won last year's tournament after defeating Wisconsin 59-53 in the championship game. The Wolverines were one of eight Big Ten teams to make the NCAA tournament field.