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Big Ten hasn't won March Madness since 2000. Will drought end this year?
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- Big Ten hasn't won March Madness since 2000. Will drought end this year?
The Big Ten is one of the two wealthiest and most powerful entities in college sports, an 18-school, coast-to-coast colossus that features many of the biggest universities and most recognizable brands in American higher education.
For all its money and influence, though, there's something quite notable that the conference is missing: a men's college basketball national championship in the past 25 years.
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As the 2026 NCAA Tournament begins this week, the Big Ten will look to rectify a lingering and unsavory bit of history by having one of its teams cut down the nets in Indiana polis on April 6 after the national title game, something that hasn't happened since Michigan State did it all the way back in 2000.
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Just how long has this drought been?
When the Spartans enjoyed their one shining moment, Bill Clinton was still the U.S. president. Later that April, the rock band Metallica sued digital file sharing application Napster. Jason Richardson , a freshman guard on that Michigan State team, now has a son who's in his rookie season in the NBA. Richardson's fellow freshman that season, Mat Ishbia, now has a net worth of $8.5 billion and owns the NBA's Phoenix Suns . Tom Izzo, who now looks like this , looked like this .
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To quote a popular song from around the time of the Spartans' triumph, it's been a while.
What's made the drought so confounding is Big Ten teams haven gotten close to winning a championship. It's not as if this is the Patriot League or the WAC, where it has a single representative in the tournament that's fortunate to win a game. Big Ten teams regularly reach the biggest and brightest stages in college basketball; they just haven't been able to close the deal.
Since Michigan State's title in 2000, 15 teams from the conference have made it to the Final Four. Eight of those squads advanced to the national championship game, but in each instance, they lost. A couple of them came agonizingly close, with Illinois losing to North Carolina, 75-70, in 2005 and Wisconsin coming up short against Duke, 68-63, in 2015.
It's not like its teams haven't been in advantageous spots entering the tournament in recent years, either. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 35 of the 40 national champions (87.5%) have been a No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed. Since 2018, Big Ten teams have accounted for 17 of those 84 spots on the bracket (20.2%).
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TITLE DROUGHT: Big Ten poised for another year of March Madness sadness
Even if current Big Ten compatriot Maryland, which won the national championship in 2002 while a member of the ACC, was included as one of the Big Ten's championships, the conference has still gone nearly a quarter-century without a title.
During that same stretch, other power conferences have repeatedly had its teams hoist a trophy at the end of the Final Four.
Since 2000, the Big East and ACC have each had eight teams win championships. During that same stretch, the SEC has had four champions and the Big 12 three. Even the American, which has disintegrated in recent years into a one- or two-bid league, had a title-winner on its resume, thanks to UConn in 2014.
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Why has Big Ten basketball gone so long without winning March Madness?
There are a number of factors that have contributed to the Big Ten's tournament woes.
For one, it's a single-elimination format that can create some extreme variance and unexpected results. Without absolving some of its missteps, it's quite possible the Big Ten's just had some rotten luck.
Beyond that, many of the Big Ten teams that made and ultimately lost the national championship game had the misfortune of running up against some of the best teams in modern college basketball history. The North Carolina team Illinois lost to in 2005 was 33-4 and had four of the top 14 picks in that year's NBA draft. Two years later, a Greg Oden and Mike Conley-led Ohio State team lost to a Florida team that brought back the entire starting five from its national championship team the year before. In 2009, Michigan State was blown out by a North Carolina team that was 34-4. Wisconsin came up short against a 2015 Duke team that won 35 games and had two top-10 NBA draft picks. Michigan was handled by a 2018 Villanova squad that won 36 games and had Jalen Brunson , Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo on its roster. Two years ago, Zach Edey and Purdue weren't able to hang with a buzzsaw of a UConn team that had won 27 of its previous 28 games, including five NCAA Tournament games that were decided by an average of 25 points.
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The wait for a champion has been even longer on the women's side, where Purdue in 1999 is the league's last national title winner. At least some of that can be explained away by a small handful of teams that own a disproportionate number of championships during that drought – namely UConn, with its 11 titles since 2000.
Can Big Ten team win a NCAA Tournament national championship this year?
The Big Ten enters the 2026 NCAA Tournament about as well-positioned as any conference in men's college basketball to take home the sport's ultimate prize.
Four of the top 10 and five of the top 13 teams on the NCAA selection committee's seed list for the tournament are from the Big Ten. Of the 20 teams that have a top-four seed in the tournament, five are from the Big Ten, the most of any conference.
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Its best bet for a champion this year appears to be Michigan, which went 31-3 in the regular season and has one of the country's best players in All-America forward Yaxel Lendeborg .
Big Ten basketball March Madness championship losses
Here's a look at Big Ten teams that have lost in the national championship game in the years since Michigan State's NCAA title in 2000:
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2002: Maryland 64, Indiana 52
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2005: North Carolina 75, Illinois 70
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2007: Florida 84, Ohio State 75
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2009: North Carolina 89, Michigan State 72
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2013: Louisville 82, Michigan 76
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2015: Duke 68, Wisconsin 63
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2018: Villanova 79, Michigan 62
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2024: Connecticut 75, Purdue 60
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Big Ten March Madness title drought could end in 2026 NCAA Tournament
