The Big Ten has earned at least eight bids in the last four NCAA tournaments and has had at least seven teams in the field in seven of the last eight, with the lone exception coming in 2018 when just four schools went dancing. While this season isn’t shaping up to be as bleak, the streak of 8+ bids is almost certainly ending.
From a bracketology perspective, the reason ties back to performance in the non-conference. The league struggled, and as a result, the opportunities to pick up quality wins in conference play became limited. Based on Monday’s NET rankings, the Big Ten notched only 16 Q1 victories in the non-conference, with Purdue accounting for five of them.