What will the Big Ten Tournament look like with 18 teams?

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Not sure about the seedings for the others but sadly #18 Minnesota seems quite possible.
It is not going to get easier. I doubt Wisconsin is #15 and USC #13. Dang, gonna be harder to just get to a 500 finish.
Buzz has that first round on Sunday, which if they are on campus games seems likely for travel.
 

SelectionSunday said:
The first question is, will all teams be invited?

I think they will, but I’m guessing the bottom 4 (at least) will have to play their way in on the Sunday before Selection Sunday.

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The First Round will be known as Minnesota Monday.
 


I agree that is probably the desired format. I just think they'll make that first round on Tuesday.
 

still start on wednesday, but probably need a second venue for one day

just more company for the gophers on wednesday
 

GopherOhana said:
still start on wednesday, but probably need a second venue for one day

just more company for the gophers on wednesday
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If they play the first round at one of the schools you are going to have to have it earlier to allow for travel to Indy, so if its Monday we can call it Mange Monday or to the prior friday, call it Fired Coach Friday
 




at the risk of being cynical, it will depend on how much TV is willing to pay for the Conf. tournament. I could see some of the early rounds getting bumped to streaming.
 


We’ll still hold “Weakling Wednesday” dear in our heats in Gopher land! Any Big Ten Tournament where the Gophers don’t have to play until Thursday should be considered a victory.

And if by some miracle we have a year(s) where they’re one of the 4 teams that doesn’t play until Friday’s quarterfinals, we can all pee our pants in sheer joy!
 

Who knows how this will go, but ...

I would have the first round go from 18 down to 12 teams in the second round, which gets you down to the same Thursday number as we have today. This would preserve the double bye for the top 4.

My only question is whether you can do 6 games on Wednesday.
 



Over/Under on the year in which the B1G tourney fields more teams than the NCAA tourney?
 

Let's dump it, and play more regular season games. The Big Ten tournament sucks and rewarding an NCAA spot for it as opposed to the team with the best record in the regular season is stupid.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Let's dump it, and play more regular season games. The Big Ten tournament sucks and rewarding an NCAA spot for it as opposed to the team with the best record in the regular season is stupid.
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I think by NCAA rule the Conference Tournament counts as just 1 game, so by dumping it it would only expand potential regular season games by also 1.

Anything additional to the conference schedule would have to come at the expense of the non-conference slate (which I would be all in favor of happening).
 


XMan said:
Cut out all the bye days and have them
Play. Bottom four play and the two winners move on to the final 16’nnthen bracket down.

18 Teams (bottom four play two move on)
16
8
4
2
Champ
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My preference as well but SS is probably correct.
 

formerlybis said:
Who knows how this will go, but ...

I would have the first round go from 18 down to 12 teams in the second round, which gets you down to the same Thursday number as we have today. This would preserve the double bye for the top 4.

My only question is whether you can do 6 games on Wednesday.
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Two ideas for 'all 18/single location' format:

1. Keep the 6 games in opening round to pare it down to 12 like you suggest. They could maybe do 2 games on Tuesday evening (the 11-14 and 12-13 games) and then 4 other games on Wednesday. The Tuesday turnaround is tight if those teams had played on Sunday, but I can't see the league not having games on the final Sunday of the regular season with so many teams.

2. Keep the double byes and have the bottom four play on Tuesday evening (15-18 and 16-17 games) to pare it down to 16, then four games on Wednesday to get to 12. Probably 2 or 3 of the bottom teams are going to know they are going to be in the Tuesday game well before the final weekend, so maybe only 1 or 2 teams will not know when they are playing as late as Sunday.
 

I like two play-in games to a straight, single-elimination 16-team tourney, no byes. A Sweet 16, of sorts. It could get done Wed-Sun.

You'd need to hold it in a city where there are two venues to play eight games on Thursday with slightly staggered start times. BTN, FS1, CBS Sports Network, etc. could try to televise them all. It would almost be an NCAA 1st round feel with a couple of games going at once on Thursday.

There are many cities in the Big Ten footprint capable of this, knowing the one-day, second venue wouldn't likely need to be an 18,000 seat arena.

As an example....something like:

WEDNESDAY:
#18 vs. #16, 6:00 (Target Center)
#15 vs. #17 8:30 (Target Center)

THURSDAY:
#1 vs. 16/18, 11:00 (Target Center)
#8 vs. #9, 2:00 (Target Center)
#4 vs. #13, 5:00 (Target Center)
#5 vs. #12, 8:00 (Target Center)

#2 vs. 15/17, noon (Williams Arena)
#7 vs. #10, 3:00 (Williams Arena)
#3 vs. #14, 6:00 (Williams Arena)
#6 vs. #11, 9:00 (Williams Arena

FRIDAY:
#1 vs. #8, 11:00 (Target Center)
#4 vs. #4, 2:00 (Target Center)
#2 vs. #7, 5:00 (Target Center)
#3 vs. #6, 8:00 (Target Center)

SATURDAY:
#1 vs. #4, 2:30 (Target Center)
#2 vs. #3, 5:30 (Target Center)

SUNDAY:
#1 vs. #2, 2:30 (Target Center)
 

SomeGopherFan said:
Two ideas for 'all 18/single location' format:

1. Keep the 6 games in opening round to pare it down to 12 like you suggest. They could maybe do 2 games on Tuesday evening (the 11-14 and 12-13 games) and then 4 other games on Wednesday. The Tuesday turnaround is tight if those teams had played on Sunday, but I can't see the league not having games on the final Sunday of the regular season with so many teams.

2. Keep the double byes and have the bottom four play on Tuesday evening (15-18 and 16-17 games) to pare it down to 16, then four games on Wednesday to get to 12. Probably 2 or 3 of the bottom teams are going to know they are going to be in the Tuesday game well before the final weekend, so maybe only 1 or 2 teams will not know when they are playing as late as Sunday.
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I like this, but I would have the 7-18 & 8-17 games on Tuesday. That should get the 7 & 8 teams a day of rest as a perk of finishing ahead of the other 10 in the regular season.
 
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formerlybis said:
I like this, but I would have the 7-18 & 8-15 games on Tuesday. That should get the 7 & 8 teams a day of rest as a perk of finishing ahead of the other 10 in the regular season.
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I actually like this idea. Plus I can see the conference liking that because those fans are now in town so they will pick up a few extra butts in seats on those days.
 

formerlybis said:
I like this, but I would have the 7-18 & 8-17 games on Tuesday. That should get the 7 & 8 teams a day of rest as a perk of finishing ahead of the other 10 in the regular season.
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I don't like the idea of forcing the Top 4 Teams having to play 4 games. There should be some reward for the Regular Season performance and there's a potential quick turnaround to the NCAA Tourney which is a much higher priority.
 

Cancel the B1G tournament. With 18/20/24 teams one conference one conference standings one conference one conference champion. A playoff game in case of a tie. And a few whole pile of NCAA invites. 12+.
 


Ope3 said:
I don't like the idea of forcing the Top 4 Teams having to play 4 games. There should be some reward for the Regular Season performance and there's a potential quick turnaround to the NCAA Tourney which is a much higher priority.
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I know the threads of who's advocating for what are hard to follow, but in my format, Round 1 gets you from 18 teams down to 12 on Thursday, and then it's the same format from there as we have now. This gives double byes for the top 4 and single byes for 5th and 6th.

What I and another couple of posters were saying is maybe instead of trying to play 6 games in one day for Round 1, that you split it up to two days: two games on Tuesday (7-18 & 8-17) and four on Wednesday (9-16, 10-15, 11-14, & 12-13).
 

formerlybis said:
I know the threads of who's advocating for what are hard to follow, but in my format, Round 1 gets you from 18 teams down to 12 on Thursday, and then it's the same format from there as we have now. This gives double byes for the top 4 and single byes for 5th and 6th.

What I and another couple of posters were saying is maybe instead of trying to play 6 games in one day for Round 1, that you split it up to two days: two games on Tuesday (7-18 & 8-17) and four on Wednesday (9-16, 10-15, 11-14, & 12-13).
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Ah, that make better sense. Thanks for clarifying.
 

I just wonder how much the B1G will try to bleed out of fans for "all-tournament" tickets? It's hard enough to get the time to be there on Wednesday. More time and more money might mean the tourney, which is a great time even in bad years, enters into a historical vestige for me. I can handle four games a day for a couple of days, but more than that might even be too much for me. If they gouge for all tournament strips, I thinks its over.
 



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