Men's basketball Big Ten conference guide: Final Four contenders, more - ESPN

If, come April 6, the Big Ten has ended its quarter-century national championship drought, it still won't change an uncomfortable fact: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, no conference has done less with more in the NCAA tournament.

The Big Ten has averaged exactly eight NCAA tournament bids in each of the past five seasons. That's 40 teams altogether — and all 40 have gone home with a loss. The record of this 18-team conference in the Big Dance is just six games over .500 (46-40), which should be impossible with a team seed average under six (5.97 to be exact).

So either five selection committees have underperformed when it counts, or the league itself has. And, well, we all know where the bodies are buried: No. 8 seed Loyola Chicago over 1-seed Illinois in 2021 (round of 32), No. 15 Saint Peter's over 3-seed Purdue in 2022 (Sweet 16), No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson over 1-seed Purdue in 2023 (round of 64). You get the idea.

But it began to change this past March. Four of eight Big Ten teams made the second weekend, with Michigan State reaching the Elite Eight. For a change, the conference played to its seed across the board.

We'll see this March (and April?) whether that was a trend or a one-off. This Bracketologist is betting on the former.

The Big Ten begins conference play on Dec. 2.

Michigan Wolverines
Purdue Boilermakers
Michigan State Spartans
Illinois Fighting Illini

The Wildcats shoot 35 percent from the field against the Spartans' 50 percent as they struggle to keep up in the 83-66 loss in Madison Square Garden.

Michigan sits atop the first Bracketology of December and Purdue is No. 1 in both wire service polls. Both are legitimate national championship contenders. At least two others appear good enough to