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Big Ten reportedly settles on basketball schedule, tournament format for 2024-25 season

Keith Farner

By Keith Farner

Published:

The Big Ten has settled on a basketball schedule layout, and conference tournament format as it gets ready to welcome USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the conference.

Jon Rothstein, a men’s college basketball insider for CBS Sports, reported that the league will stay at 20 basketball games in the newly expanded Big Ten, and only 15 of the 18 teams will participate in the Big Ten Tournament in 2025.

None of the 4 new programs are currently ranked in men’s basketball, and have largely struggled this season as a whole. Oregon is 14-5 and 6-2 in the Pac-12, while UCLA is 8-11 and 3-5, Washington is 11-9 and 2-6 and USC is 8-11 and 2-6.

This has been a topic of discussion since the Big Ten added Oregon and Washington in August, after it had previously welcomed USC and UCLA the year before. That was during a flurry of realignment that also saw Oklahoma and Texas move to the SEC, all starting next academic year.

The Ducks were first to make it official with a unanimous vote by the school’s 13 trustees. The Big Ten a short time later said its presidents’ council voted to accept Oregon along with Washington and become an 18-team coast-to-coast conference, with 4 West Coast members.

Along with scheduling, travel has also been a talking point, as Oregon’s and Washington’s closest new conference neighbor, Nebraska, is some 1,600 miles away.

Keith Farner

Keith Farner has written about college football for newspapers and web sites since 2005.