Wish We Could Have Seen You Again: Big Ten Denied Intra-League Matchups
NCAA Tournament match-ups between members from the same power league are relatively rare (29 of them). But the Big Ten Conference, expecting a double-digit number of members in the tourney, could have had multiple such contests this year. Three seasons ago, SEC rivals Florida and South Carolina met in the East Regional final. It was the first such tilt for the SEC in a 31-year span.
The Big Ten Conference accounted for seven of the first 18 NCAA Tournament games pitting league members against each other. Four campaigns ago marked the first time a league (ACC) generated three intra-conference playoff confrontations in a single tourney. If not for coronavirus concerns, it wouldn't have been surprising if the Big Ten duplicated that achievement this season.
| Year | Conference | Playoff Round | NCAA Tourney Result Between Members of Same League |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Big Ten | national championship | Indiana 86 (May scored team-high 26 points), Michigan 68 (Green 18) |
| 1980 | Big Ten | regional semifinals | Purdue 76 (Edmonson/Morris 20), Indiana 69 (I. Thomas 30) |
| 1980 | Big Ten | national third-place | Purdue 75 (Carroll 35), Iowa 58 (Arnold 19) |
| 1981 | ACC | national semifinals | North Carolina 78 (Wood 39), Virginia 65 (Lamp 18) |
| 1983 | ACC | regional final | North Carolina State 63 (Whittenburg 24), Virginia 62 (Sampson 23) |
| 1985 | Big East | national semifinals | Georgetown 77 (Williams 20), St. John's 59 (Glass 13) |
| 1985 | Big East | national championship | Villanova 66 (McClain 17), Georgetown 64 (Wingate 16) |
| 1986 | SEC | regional semifinals | Kentucky 68 (Walker 22), Alabama 63 (Coner 20) |
| 1986 | SEC | regional final | Louisiana State 59 (Williams 16), Kentucky 57 (Walker 20) |
| 1987 | Big East | regional final | Providence 88 (Donovan/D. Wright 20), Georgetown 73 (Williams 25) |
| 1987 | Big East | national semifinals | Syracuse 77 (Monroe 17), Providence 63 (Screen 18) |
| 1988 | Big Eight | regional final | Kansas 71 (Manning 20), Kansas State 58 (Scott 18) |
| 1988 | Big Eight | national championship | Kansas 83 (Manning 31), Oklahoma 79 (Sieger 22) |
| 1989 | Big Ten | national semifinals | Michigan 83 (Rice 28), Illinois 81 (Battle 29) |
| 1992 | Big Ten | regional final | Michigan 75 (Webber 23), Ohio State 71 (Jackson 20) |
| 1992 | Great Midwest | regional final | Cincinnati 88 (Jones 23), Memphis State 57 (Hardaway 12) |
| 2000 | Big Ten | regional final | Wisconsin 64 (Bryant 18), Purdue 60 (Cardinal/Cunningham 13) |
| 2000 | Big Ten | national semifinals | Michigan State 53 (Peterson 20), Wisconsin 41 (Boone 18) |
| 2001 | ACC | national semifinals | Duke 95 (Battier 25), Maryland 84 (Dixon 19) |
| 2002 | Big 12 | regional final | Oklahoma 81 (Price 18), Missouri 75 (Paulding 22) |
| 2009 | Big East | regional final | Villanova 78 (Anderson 17), Pittsburgh 76 (Young 28) |
| 2013 | Big East | regional final | Syracuse 55 (Southerland 16), Marquette 39 (Blue 14) |
| 2015 | ACC | regional semifinals | Louisville 75 (Harrell 24), North Carolina State 65 (Lacey 18) |
| 2016 | ACC | regional final | North Carolina 88 (Johnson 25), Notre Dame 74 (Jackson 26) |
| 2016 | ACC | regional final | Syracuse 68 (Richardson 23), Virginia 62 (Perrantes 18) |
| 2016 | ACC | national semifinals | North Carolina 83 (Jackson/Johnson 16), Syracuse 66 (Cooney 22) |
| 2017 | SEC | regional final | South Carolina 77 (Thornwell 26), Florida 70 (Leon 18) |
| 2018 | ACC | regional semifinals | Duke 69 (Bagley 22), Syracuse 65 (Battle 19) |
| 2019 | Big Ten | second round | Michigan State 70 (Tillman 14), Minnesota 50 (Coffey 27) |
| 2019 | ACC | regional semifinals | Duke 75 (Williamson 23), Virginia Tech 73 (Blackshear 18) |
| 2019 | SEC | regional final | Auburn 77 (Harper 26), Kentucky 71 (Washington 28) |