The 2026 Big Ten men's basketball tournament (branded as the 2026 TIAA Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament for sponsorship reasons) was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The tournament took place from March 10–15, 2026 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. As the tournament winner, Purdue received the conference's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA tournament.

On September 18, 2025, the Big Ten announced that the tournament would expand to include all 18 teams. In the previous edition, the first since the conference expanded to 18 teams, only the top 15 teams qualified for the tournament.

With a win over Illinois on February 27, 2026, Michigan clinched the number one seed in the tournament.

Seeds Teams were seeded by conference record, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with identical conference records. SeedSchoolConference recordTiebreaker 1 Michigan 19–1 2 Nebraska 15–5 2–1 vs. Michigan State/Illinois 3 Michigan State 15–5 1–1 vs. Nebraska/Illinois 4 Illinois 15–5 1–2 vs. Nebraska/Michigan State 5 Wisconsin 14–6 6 UCLA 13–7 1–0 vs Purdue 7 Purdue 13–7 0–1 vs UCLA 8Ohio State 12–8 9 Iowa 10–10 10 Indiana 9–11 11 Minnesota 8–12 12 Washington 7–13 2–0 vs USC 13 USC 7–13 0–2 vs Washington 14 Rutgers 6–14 15 Northwestern 5–15 1–0 vs. Oregon 16 Oregon 5–15 0–1 vs. Northwestern 17 Maryland 4–16 18 Penn State 3–17

Schedule SessionGameTime*Matchup#ScoreTelevisionAttendance First round – Tuesday, March 10114:00 p.m.No. 17 Maryland vs. No. 16 Oregon70–60Peacock/NBCSN15,82826:30 p.m.No. 18 Penn State vs. No. 15 Northwestern66–76 Second round – Wednesday, March 112311:00 a.m.No. 17 Maryland vs. No. 9 Iowa64–75Peacock/NBCSN15,66141:30 p.m.No. 13 USC vs. No. 12 Washington79–83OT355:30 p.m.No. 15 Northwestern vs. No. 10 Indiana 74–61BTN16,12268:00 p.m.No. 14 Rutgers vs. No. 11 Minnesota72–67 Third round – Thursday, March 124711:00 a.m.No. 9 Iowa vs. No. 8 Ohio State69–72BTN16,15781:30 p.m.No. 12 Washington vs. No. 5 Wisconsin82–85595:30 p.m.No. 15 Northwestern vs. No. 7 Purdue68–8116,861108:00 p.m.No. 14 Rutgers vs. No. 6 UCLA59–72 Quarterfinals – Friday, March 1361111:00 a.m.No. 8 Ohio State vs No. 1 Michigan67–71BTN18,988121:30 p.m.No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 4 Illinois 91–88OT7135:30 p.m.No. 7 Purdue vs. No. 2 Nebraska 74–5818,238148:00 p.m.No. 6 UCLA vs. No. 3 Michigan State 88–84 Semifinals – Saturday, March 1481512:00 p.m.No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 5 Wisconsin 68–65CBS17,923162:30 p.m.No. 7 Purdue vs. No. 6 UCLA 73–66 Championship – Sunday, March 159172:30 p.m. No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 7 Purdue 72–80CBS 16,807 *Game times in CDT. #Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

* denotes overtime period

Game summaries First round

Second round

Third round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Championship

All-Tournament team The All-tournament team was as follows: Aday Mara, Michigan Oscar Cluff, Purdue Braden Smith, Purdue John Blackwell, Wisconsin Nick Boyd, Wisconsin

References