The top-heavy Big Ten has been impressing people for most of the year. That continued during the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, too, with the league showing off with some serious butt-kicking.

Five different Big Ten teams won games by 20 points or more in the first round, and no league has ever done that before.

The league went 7-2 overall, with only Wisconsin and Ohio State losing in a tournament's first round. Wisconsin, a No. 5 seed, was the highest seed to lose, falling to High Point, the only mid-major left along with VCU, which beat North Carolina.

Ohio State lost to TCU as a No. 8 seed. All four No. 8 seeds lost, but some were favored anyway.

Here are the beatdowns:

No. 1 seed Michigan beat No. 16 seed Howard, 101-80.
No. 2 seed Purdue beat No. 15 seed Queens, 104-71
No. 3 seed Michigan State beat No. 14 seed North Dakota State, 92-67.
No. 3 seed Illinois beat No. 14 seed Pennsylvania 105-70.
No. 4 seed Nebraska beat No. 13 seed Troy 76-47.

That's five wins by an average of 28.6 points per game. It's supposed to happen, of course, beating lower seeds, but it's amazing that's it's never happened before by a league in round round of a tournament. 

It's that time of year to be at your best, and we saw that from a lot of Big Ten teams on Thursday and Friday.

"Yeah, just to play like we played last game, play connected, help each other, know the fact that every game could be our last,'' said Illinois center Tomislav Ivisic. "There's just something that pushes us to give more and to prepare better and just execute what the coaches want us to do.''

Illinois coach Brad Underwood thinks his team is capable of making a Final Four run, and he loves his mix of veterans and talented freshman. He also likes how deep his team is at every position. That's why he wasn't surprised he beat a decent Penn team by 35, or that freshman David Mirkovic had 29 points and 17 rebounds.

"I think it speaks to our veterans. They're not in any way threatened by any of that. They're accepting,'' Underwood said. "I've said it all along, this team has tremendous chemistry, both on and off the court. They don't care who does it. They have pure joy seeing others succeed.

"Our locker room was just bouncing off the walls because of Mirk's record. It tied our NCAA record for most rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game. There's happiness for everybody. That's really contagious, and it's made this group a lot of fun to coach.''

With seven teams still alive in the Big Ten, it's going to be interesting to see how many survive. It's been 26 years since a league team won the NCAA title — that was Michigan State back in 2000 — and there are several teams who think they can get there.

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