The Big Ten is one of the two wealthiest and most powerful entities in college sports, an 18-school, coast-to-coast colossus that features many of the biggest universities and most recognizable brands in American higher education.

For all its money and influence, though, there’s something quite notable that the conference is missing: a men’s college basketball national championship in the past 25 years.

As the 2026 NCAA Tournament begins this week, the Big Ten will look to rectify a lingering and unsavory bit of history by having one of its teams cut down the nets in Indianapolis on April 6 after the national title game, something that hasn’t happened since Michigan State did it all the way back in 2000.

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Just how long has this drought been?

When the Spartans enjoyed their one shining moment, Bill Clinton was still the U.S. president. Later that April, the rock band Metallica sued digital file sharing application Napster. Jason Richardson, a freshman guard on that Michigan State team, now has a son who’s in his rookie season in the NBA. Richardson’s fellow freshman that season, Mat Ishbia, now has a net worth of $8.5 billion and owns the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Tom Izzo, who now looks like this, looked like this.

To quote a popular song from around the time of the Spartans’ triumph, it’s been a while.

What’s made the drought so confounding is Big Ten teams haven gotten close to winning a championship. It’s not as if this is the Patriot League or the WAC, where it has a single representative in the tournament that’s fortunate to win a game. Big Ten teams regularly reach the biggest and brightest stages in college basketball; they just haven’t been able to close the deal.

Since Michigan State’s title in 2000, 15 teams from the conference have made it to the Final Four. Eight of those squads advanced to the national championship game, but in each instance, they lost. A couple of them came agonizingly close, with Illinois losing to North Carolina, 75-70, in 2005 and Wisconsin coming up short against Duke, 68-63, in 2015.

It’s not like its teams haven’t been in advantageous spots entering the tournament in recent years, either. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 35 of the 40 national champions (87.5%) have been a No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed. Since 2018, Big Ten teams have accounted for 17 of those 84 spots on the bracket (20.2%).

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Even if current Big Ten compatriot Maryland, which won the national championship in 2002 while a member of the ACC, was included as one of the Big Ten’s championships, the conference has still gone nearly a quarter-century without a title.

During that same stretch, other power conferences have repeatedly had its teams hoist a trophy at the end of the Final Four.

Since 2000, the Big East and ACC have each had eight teams win championships. During that same stretch, the SEC has had four champions and the Big 12 three. Even the American, which has disintegrated in recent years into a one- or two-bid league, had a title-winner on its resume, thanks to UConn in 2014.