NCAA Basketball Big Ten Conference Betting
By By Josh Walfish
Updated date: March 6, 2022
In a league as deep as the Big Ten, trying to pick a favorite for the conference tournament is a challenge. More than half of the teams in the league can make a realistic argument to be cutting down the nets on Sunday, yet only one will obviously earn the automatic bid. For most of the teams in the tournament, the event is going to have a large impact on their NCAA Tournament seeding with so many teams bunched so close together in the rankings.
Purdue ends up as the betting favorite at +200 odds, and the Boilermakers are the most complete team in the league, probably. There was a lot of bad luck that cost them the regular-season crown, but they will have a home-court-esque advantage in Indianapolis and might have the easiest route to the semifinals of the top-four seeds that earned double byes.
Illinois is the top seed in the event and owns +270 odds to win the tournament. The Fighting Illini have won three straight and four of their final five games to enter the tournament with some momentum. The same, though, can be said about Iowa at +440 after winning eight of nine games before a two-point loss at Illinois in the season finale. The Hawkeyes have one of the best players in the league and they have gone toe-to-toe with all the best in the conference this season.
Injury concerns are what is keeping Wisconsin at +1000 at the moment as the Badgers are a completely different team without Johnny Davis. If the star can play in the tournament, it is hard to discount the co-champions from the mix, but if the Badgers try to rest him for the NCAA Tournament, it could be an early exit from Indianapolis as a result.
The two wild cards are Michigan State and Ohio State, a pair of teams that showed a lot of talent and potential early in the season before fading in February. It isn’t a surprise to see the Buckeyes have the better odds at +1100 because they are the higher seed, but their road to the final is also more challenging than Michigan State’s. The Spartans have +1600 odds to win the tournament as the seventh seed, but they could easily cruise to the semifinals against Maryland and a banged-up Wisconsin team whereas the Buckeyes would have to face Purdue in the quarterfinals.
The true darkhorse, though, is fourth-seeded Rutgers with +2000 odds to win the Big Ten Tournament. The Scarlet Knights were definitely the streakiest team in the league with long winning streaks and losing skids during the season. However, one of those good stretches included wins over Michigan State, Ohio State, Illinois, and Wisconsin. At their best, Rutgers can absolutely win three games in three days to cut down the nets and make a statement to the nation ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
For those curious, Nebraska has +50000 odds to run the gauntlet from the first game to the last game. The Cornhuskers have won three straight games, all on the road, and two against ranked opponents—Ohio State and Wisconsin. Nebraska underperformed this season in tying for last place in the league, but no team is playing with as much confidence and with as little to lose as the Cornhuskers.
The depth of the Big Ten is always its hallmark, and that was no different this season. It was yet again another split title as Illinois and Wisconsin shared the crown, but it was only shared because Nebraska, which finished second-to-last in the league, beat the Badgers on the final day of the season. The conference could place as many as nine teams in the NCAA Tournament this year, and there are four or five teams that could make a run to the Final Four this season.
More than half of the teams in the league this year finished with a winning record in conference play and just four games separated the top-two teams from Michigan as the eighth seed. There were surprising upsets nearly every week, and some crazy finishes on back-breaking buzzer beaters. Yet that is the result of a deep league where there were no easy games and everyone gave their best effort on a nightly basis.
Purdue was perhaps the unluckiest of teams with four of its six conference losses coming on last-second shots. Yet if the Boilermakers might also be the best team in the conference with its explosive offense led by a balanced scoring attack. Wisconsin arguably has the best player in the league, and his absence played a major impact on the Badgers’ success over the course of the season. Michigan was a preseason top-10 team and never lived up to those expectations, but the talent is still there and the Wolverines have some big wins over the last month of the season.
Rutgers didn’t always play its best basketball, but it had some incredible wins and picked up momentum late in the season. The same could be said for Iowa, which rolled to some big wins down the stretch to improve its tournament resume. On the opposite end, Michigan State and Ohio State, both of which struggled in the latter half of conference play. They are both tournament teams capable of doing damage in March, but enter the postseason short on confidence based on recent results.