Big Ten: Bracket, Schedule & Tiebreakers for Basketball Tournament 2020

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Maryland finished the regular season with a share of the Big Ten title.

The Big Ten tournament starts on Wednesday, March 11, but the top four seeds will not play until Friday, March 13. It was a complicated end to the regular season as Wisconsin, Michigan State and Maryland all finished with a share of the Big Ten championship. The Big Ten tournament championship will take place at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on March 15 and will end just a few minutes before Selection Sunday reveals the full March Madness bracket.

Wisconsin will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament followed by No. 2 Michigan State and No. 3 Maryland. All three teams finished with identical conference records, but the Badgers won the tiebreaker based on the top head-to-head winning percentage among the trio of teams. Here is how the Big Ten detailed the tiebreaker process when three or more teams finish with the same conference record.

Multiple-team tie:
1. Results of head-to-head competition during the regular-season.
a. When comparing records against the tied teams, teams will be seeded based on winning percentage among the group, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0). If all teams among the group are separated based on winning percentage, all ties are broken. If winning percentage among the group for any tied teams is equal, move to step b with those specific tied teams only (e.g. if there is a four-team tie, one team is 4-0, another is 3-1 and the last two are 2-2 among the group, the two teams that are 2-2 move to step b and the teams that are 4-0 and 3-1 assume the next two available highest seeds).

Maryland & Michigan State Are Currently Projected to Be the Highest-Seeded Big Ten Teams in March Madness

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has both Michigan State and Maryland as No. 3 seeds if the March Madness bracket were revealed today. Despite winning a share of the regular-season Big Ten title, Wisconsin sits as a No. 5 seed in Palm’s projections.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Spartans as the highest-seeded Big Ten team at No. 3. Lunardi has the Terapins and Badgers both as No. 4 seeds. There is still plenty of time for this to shift after the Big Ten tournament.

Here is a look at the Big Ten tournament bracket and schedule.

Big Ten Tournament Bracket 2020

Big Ten Tournament Schedule

All games on the first three days of the conference tournament will be televised on Big Ten Network, per NCAA.com. CBS will broadcast the semifinal and championship games on March 14-15.