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Big Ten DNA: What Makes a Tournament Champion?
Could a Big Ten Team End Its 25-Year Drought and Make March Madness History?
It’s Showtime
College sports have seen conference makeovers, but the Big Ten remains home to some of the country’s most sought-after schools for collegiate sports: Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, etc.
For years, Big Ten schools flopped in college football championship games because they couldn’t handle the speed of the SEC. But in the last two years, Ohio State and Michigan have won championships.
Yet the college basketball lines tell a different story. It has been 25 years since a Big Ten team won a national championship.
The last Big Ten champion was the 1999-00 Michigan State Spartans, which was legendary coach Tom Izzo’s fifth season with the team when they defeated Florida. It’s been so long that their March Madness highlights weren’t even in HD:
Michigan State Basketball Game of the Day🏀
vs. #5 Florida (2000 National Championship🏆)
– The game was played on April 3, 2000 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana
– The Spartans defeated the Gators, who were appearing in their first championship game, 89–76, earning… pic.twitter.com/Y3fDnGmFRN
— Michigan State Content (@msucontent) August 16, 2023
Izzo is still there and hasn’t missed an NCAA tournament opportunity since 1997. Yet the Spartans have never won another title nor has any other Big Ten team in that time.
In fact, the Big Ten is 0-7 in March Madness championship games going back to Indiana’s loss in 2002 to Maryland, which was an ACC school at the time. Purdue was the most recent loss last year to UConn (Big East).
Could a Big Ten Team End Their 25-Year Drought?
As usual, the Big Ten has several teams who could easily compete for a Final Four appearance in 2025’s tournament. Here are the latest March Madness odds to win the championship for the top contending Big Ten teams in 2025 via BetUS:
- Wisconsin (+3000).
- Michigan State (+4000).
- Michigan (+4500).
- Purdue (+4500).
- Maryland (+5000).
- UCLA (+7000).
- Illinois (+8000).
It would be tough to end the drought as there are seven NCAAB teams ahead of Wisconsin, which has the best odds in the Big Ten. The Badgers have a very good offense and recently won in Purdue, a top-10 team at the time. But the defense is spotty (131st in Defensive Rating), and coach Greg Gard has not advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament since his first full year on the job (2016-17).
Even though Purdue lost Zach Edey to the NBA, they were still having a solid year behind coach Matt Painter, but a recent 3-game losing streak against ranked opponents casts doubt on their ability to get back to the title game. But they have faced the toughest schedule in the Big Ten and have had the highest ranking (No. 6) of any Big Ten team in the AP poll.
Straight 🧈.
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/5ce5Amue6G
— Purdue Men’s Basketball (@BoilerBall) February 23, 2025
Michigan State is the current conference leader with a 22-5 record, including 13-3 in conference play. The Spartans just won 75-62 in Michigan last week, an impressive win for Izzo’s bunch. They are solid at both ends of the court but lack a reliable scorer and they shoot just .296 from 3 (351st in the nation).
Backing an Underdog?
Ultimately, the drought may extend to another season. But if I was making a value pick today, I’d back the Maryland Terrapins (21-6) as a team that’s top 20 in efficiency on both sides of the court, and they have a chance to finish strong with games against both Michigan schools coming up.
Setting the nationwide standard. 💯 pic.twitter.com/CSfeJsOTHR
— Maryland Men’s Basketball (@TerrapinHoops) February 21, 2025
According to the Simple Rating System (SRS), this is the strongest Maryland team since 2002’s championship team in the ACC. All five starters can score and haven’t missed a game this season. They are very good at 3-point shooting (.375), and they are 3-1 against the strongest teams they’ve faced this year according to SRS.
If Big Ten football can have its glory days again, so can basketball.
