Big Ten NCAA Championship Drought Reaches 25 Years

Big Ten NCAA Championship in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament? It's been 25 years! That's a quarter of a century folks! In other words, an entire generation of people have never seen a Big Ten basketball team win a national championship. Let that sink in!

Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans were the last Big Ten team to win a natty in 2000. Maryland won in 2002 but they belonged to the ACC back then. And they beat Indiana for the title.

Along the way the conference has has some close calls but never cut down the nets. In 2005 Illinois got close but lost to North Carolina by 5 points. Michigan State got back to the final on 2009 but got blown out by North Carolina by 17. There was no way Ohio State was going to beat Billy Donovan's Gators in 2007.

Big Ten NCAA Championship? In 2013 Michigan lost to Rick Pitino's Louisville squad. But they had to vacate that win due to recruiting violations. Shouldn't Michigan get that title after the fact?

The 2015 Wisconsin Badgers were great. But they blew a 9 point second lead against Duke in the championship and lost by 5. In 20018 Michigan got crushed by Jay Wright's Villanova team.

And let's not forget last year's Purdue team that made it to the final. With giant Zach Edey, that was the best Boilermaker team I've ever seen. And yet nobody was going to deny UConn their second straight title.

Since the Big Ten NCAA championship drought, the Big East won eight titles. The ACC also won eight. And while the Big Ten has lost eight title games, no other conference has lost more than three.

But here is the good news: People used to point out the thin line of football championships by Big Ten teams the past few decades. Now Michigan and Ohio State are back to back reigning champions. Maybe the conference's luck will change in basketball soon. But it probably won't happen this year.

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