Big Ten moving to 14 team, 5 day format for 2015 tournament

You probably know that the Big Ten Basketball Tournament is a 12 team affair that runs from Thursday to Selection Sunday. You probably also know that next year, the Big Ten will add Rutgers and Maryland, moving the conference to 14 teams. There were some questions about what would happen next. Would the league stay at a 12 game tournament, potentially leaving say, Penn State and Rutgers at home? Would they move to 14? If so...how?

Well, we have some answers to those questions now. Per Indiana blog Inside the Hall, the Big Ten has decided that everybody will make the tournament, making the Big Ten Tournament a 14 team affair that will start on Wednesday, instead of Thursday.

Big Ten Senior Associate Commissioner for Television Mark Rudner told Inside the Hall on Thursday afternoon that the conference tournament will now begin on Wednesday with two games.

From there, the tournament will follow its current format: four games on Thursday, four quarterfinals on Friday, two semifinals on Saturday and the championship game on Sunday.

Rudner said the league has not decided on how seeding will work for the expanded tournament.

"We haven't determined the times, we haven't determined the seeding," Rudner said. "All we know is that we go from 11 games to 13 games.

Inside the Hall points out that the SEC has this problem now, and under their system, seeds 1-4 skip the first two days, and 5-6 play the winners of the Wednesday games. However, that doesn't mean the Big Ten will necessarily do things the same way.

Next year's Big Ten Tournament will be in Chicago. Even if the first two games suck, hey, you should be able to find something fun to do if you're in Chicago another day, right?

Here's hoping Ohio State never knows what it's like to play in the Big Ten Wednesday game.