Good Morning, Illini Nation: Should Big Ten Change Schedule Format?

May 9—The ACC announced this week it would pivot back to an 18-game conference schedule in 2025-26 after playing 20 league games since 2019-20. It's a return to the format the ACC used from 2012-13 through 2018-19.

The reason? Here's what the ACC said.

"As a league, we have been transparent about the importance of ACC Men's Basketball and specifically our commitment to ensuring it is best positioned for the future," said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips (a former Illinois manager for Lou Henson) in the official release. "Moving to an 18-game conference schedule is a direct result of our ongoing strategic review and analysis and provides our schools a better balance of nonconference and conference games, while also allowing them more autonomy in the scheduling process. This decision reflects our ongoing prioritization to do what's best for ACC Men's Basketball, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness of our membership and the support from our television partners."

That's ... a bunch of words that don't really say anything. What Phillips isn't saying is the ACC has fallen on hard times. The conference got a record low four teams in the 2025 NCAA tournament, and that included North Carolina barely making the field in the First Four. The year before? Just five tournament teams. The year before that? Also five.

The top of the ACC has remained fairly strong. It's the bottom half (if not more) that's dragged down the overall value of any ACC win. Playing fewer games against teams that can absolutely tank your résumé is clearly the goal here. As reference, in 2024-25, the ACC had five teams ranked in the top 50 in KenPom, then five more between 51-100 and eight outside the top 100. That included Miami at 193rd, which was only higher than the disaster that was Seton Hall among power conference teams.

Will a smaller conference schedule help the ACC? We'll see. But for the time being it's the fifth power conference of five behind the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Big East.

Speaking of the Big Ten, it will remain at 20 conference games for the 2025-26 season. Discussions in the league haven't been about contracting the conference slate, but potentially expanding it. Something Illinois coach Brad Underwood supports.

In fact, Underwood is the lone voice in the wild championing a full round-robin Big Ten schedule where everyone plays the other 17 teams twice. That, of course, would require expanding the regular season schedule beyond its current maximum of 31 games.

"I wish the league would play 34 league games and just play everybody twice," Underwood said after Illinois' loss at Michigan State in January with the rematch coming in February because the Spartans were one of three teams the Illini got home-and-home series with last season.

"Let's have a real league that plays everybody twice," Underwood continued. "Wouldn't that be fun? You don't think the fans in here didn't enjoy that? How about the fans in Champaign? We get to have that game, too. Let's play 34 league games and we all play each other twice. That would be fun."