The Big Ten has half of the Elite Eight teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Four of the last eight teams standing in this year’s NCAA Tournament are from the Big Ten – No. 1 seed Michigan, No. 2 seed Purdue, No. 3 seed Illinois and No. 9 seed Iowa, the lowest-seeded team to advance to the quarterfinals of this year’s Big Dance.
It’s the fourth time four teams from the same conference have made the Elite Eight. This year’s performance by the Big Ten ties the record previously set by the Big East in 2009 (Louisville, Pitt, UConn and Villanova), the ACC in 2016 (North Carolina, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Virginia) and the SEC in 2025 (Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee).
After a conference-record six Big Ten teams advanced to the Sweet 16, the only Big Ten teams to lose in the third round were No. 3 seed Michigan State, which lost to No. 2 seed UConn, and No. 4 seed Nebraska, which lost in an intraconference matchup with the Hawkeyes. Had the Spartans defeated the Huskies, the Big Ten would have become the first conference ever with five Elite Eight teams.
The Big Ten is guaranteed to have at least one team in the Final Four, as Illinois will face Iowa in the South Regional final on Saturday (6:09 p.m., TBS). Purdue will face No. 1 seed Arizona in Saturday’s West Regional final (8:49 p.m., TBS). Michigan will face No. 6 seed Tennessee in the Midwest Regional final at 2:15 p.m. Sunday (CBS) in a game that will feature a head-to-head matchup between two Ohio State transfers: Roddy Gayle Jr. (Michigan) and Felix Okpara (Tennessee).
The Big Ten is the only conference with multiple teams in this year’s Elite Eight. The ACC (Duke), Big East (UConn), Big 12 (Arizona) and SEC (Tennessee) each have one.
