Maryland earns No. 1 seed after securing outright Big Ten title
ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Big Ten Conference has announced the full bracket for the 26th Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament that will take place March 6-10 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Maryland (26-3, 15-3 Big Ten) is the No. 1 seed for this year’s tournament after securing the outright Big Ten Championship on Saturday with its 71-62 win over Illinois. The Terrapins have won four Big Ten titles (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) and three Big Ten Tournament championships (2015, 2016, 2017) since joining the conference prior to the 2014-15 season.
Maryland will open tournament play on Friday with a quarterfinal contest at noon (ET) against the winner of the second-round game between No. 8 seed Northwestern and No. 9 seed Michigan State.
Iowa (23-6, 14-4) is the No. 2 seed for this year’s Big Ten Tournament, the Hawkeyes’ highest seed since 2015 when they were also in the second position. Iowa tips off its postseason schedule at 6:30 p.m. (ET) Friday with a tournament quarterfinal game against the winner of the second-round matchup between No. 7 seed Minnesota and 10th-seeded Indiana.
Rutgers (21-8, 13-5) earned the No. 3 seed for the Big Ten Tournament after posting its highest conference win total since 2007-08 when it went 14-2 as a member of the BIG EAST Conference. The Scarlet Knights also secure their highest seed in the Big Ten Tournament since joining the conference in 2014-15 and will play in the last Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal on Friday night, 25 minutes following the completion of Iowa’s quarterfinal.
Rounding out the top four seeds in this year’s Big Ten Tournament is Michigan (20-10, 11-7), which claimed the last of the tournament’s double-byes into the quarterfinal round. The Wolverines will open their Big Ten Tournament slate Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals, playing 25 minutes after Maryland’s game has concluded.
All 13 games of this year’s Big Ten Tournament will be televised live to a national audience, with the first round through semifinal games from Wednesday through Saturday broadcast on BTN, as well as on the FOX Sports app and through BTN’s digital extension, BTN2Go. The Big Ten Tournament championship game on March 10 will be televised live on ESPN2, as well as the WatchESPN platform and the ESPN app.