New Big Ten Tournament format has Iowa basketball fighting to even get in

The Hawkeyes are simply fighting to get into the Big Ten Tournament at this point.
Feb 19, 2025; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes forward Payton Sandfort (20) reacts on the court after the game against the Oregon Ducks at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Feb 19, 2025; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes forward Payton Sandfort (20) reacts on the court after the game against the Oregon Ducks at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Iowa basketball certainly hasn't had the season they thought they would. The Hawkeyes are currently 14-12 overall and 5-10 in the Big Ten, currently sitting at 15th in the conference if the season ended today.

The Hawkeyes, at this point, can't even think about getting into March Madness yet. Due to the changing format of the Big Ten Tournament this year, Iowa has other things to focus on right now. They have to focus on getting into the Big Ten Tournament first to even have a chance to compete for a bid into the NCAA Tournament.

With the addition of the four new teams this past summer, Washington, USC, Oregon, and UCLA, the Big Ten chose to change the format of the Big Ten basketball tournaments. In years past, when there were 14 teams in the conference, every team made it to the Big Ten Tournament, no matter what their record was. Now, with 18 teams, the conference chose to only expand the tournament to 15 teams, leaving the bottom three teams out.

This change to the format means that the top four teams will receive a double bye while the top nine teams receive a first-round bye. The bottom three teams won't even get a chance to compete and try to make a run for the automatic bid of winning the conference tournament, meaning their season will pretty much end after the regular season, as any sort of postseason tournament bid seems unlikely

When it comes to the Big Ten standings, as mentioned earlier, Iowa is currently ranked No. 15, which means it would be the final team to make the tournament. However, they are only half a game against Northwestern, which means they are very much on the fence of missing the Big Ten Tournament altogether.

Iowa has five regular season games left. They have two home games at Washington and No. 14 Michigan State and three away games at Washington, Northwestern, and Nebraska. The game against Northwestern is crucial because if they finish the season tied in the conference and overall record, the tie will go to the head-to-head competition and both teams have yet to face off this season.

At this point, Iowa just needs to focus on winning games because that is the only way they are going to make it into the Big Ten Tournament and have any sort of fighting chance at getting an automatic bid with a tournament championship.

Schedule

Schedule