The Big Ten has the target well within reach as the conference seeks its first national championship since Michigan State won it all in 2000. With six teams advancing to the Sweet 16, the conference will have multiple teams with solid chances at reaching the Final Four after it missed out last season.
At least one Big Ten team is guaranteed to reach the Elite Eight. That’s because No. 4 seed Nebraska and No. 9 seed Iowa will play each other in the Sweet 16 as part of a South Region that also features No. 3 seed Illinois. It is the first time since 2018 and just the third time ever that three teams from the same conference have advanced to the Sweet 16 within the same region.
YearRegionConferenceTeams (Seeds)2026SouthBig TenIllinois (3), Nebraska (4), Iowa (9)2018MidwestACCDuke (2), Clemson (5), Syracuse (11)1986SoutheastSECKentucky (1), Alabama (5), LSU (11)
The Hawkeyes are unequivocally the Big Ten’s most surprising Sweet 16 representative after stunning No. 1 seed Florida 73-72 on Sunday. No. 1 seed Michigan from the Midwest looks like the Big Ten’s top title contender, but the Wolverines are surrounded by plenty of company as the league seeks a basketball breakthrough to accompany its three straight football titles.
Things are far less rosy for the ACC, which saw just one of its eight NCAA Tournament teams survive the weekend. That team was No. 1 overall seed Duke, which will now enjoy the distinct displeasure of playing No. 5 seed St. John’s in the Sweet 16 after the Red Storm squeaked out a thrilling win over Kansas.
Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s second-round action.
Winner: Big Ten’s epic day
Six of the Sweet 16 teams hail from the Big Ten. Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Iowa are still alive entering the second weekend. It’s tied for the second-most for any conference behind the 2025 SEC, which sent seven teams to the Sweet 16. The guard play in the Big Ten has been especially excellent this season, which may explain the surge of Sweet 16 entries.
Purdue’s Braden Smith is the all-time assist leader.Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr. just had a 16-assist game, the most in MSU history, passing up the ole Magic Johnson.Iowa point guard Bennett Stirtz is a potential first-round pick.Illinois point guard Keaton Wagler is a potential lottery pick.Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau has had a much better year than many projected.
You get the point.
No league posted a higher effective field goal percentage than the Big Ten this year, which could also be directly attributed to the floor generals in this league. It showed up in March. – Isaac Trotter
Loser: ACC is down to one team
If you’re using NCAA Tournament success as a primary measuring stick, the ACC can’t claim improvement this year. Miami’s 79-69 loss to Purdue and Virginia’s 79-72 loss to Tennessee on Sunday left No. 1 overall seed Duke as the league’s only team advancing to the Sweet 16.
If you zoom out, the ACC took strides in the 2025-26 season toward restoring its national relevance after placing just four of its 18 teams into the field of 68 last year. With eight teams in this year’s tournament and an improving roster of coaches, the conference is on a good trajectory. But that progress was not evident in its 2026 NCAA Tournament results. – David Cobb
Winner: Dylan Darling the unlikely hero
Kansas didn’t seem overly concerned about getting beat off the dribble by St. John’s point guard Dylan Darling on the final possession of regulation. Perhaps the Jayhawks should have devoted a little more attention to stopping the ball. Darling drove straight to the basket and hit a game-winner at the buzzer, lifting the No 5 seed Red Storm to a 67-65 victory over No. 4 seed Kansas. Darling sized up the 1-on-1 defense from KU’s Elmarko Jackson and decided to take the game into his own hands, even though he had been held scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting until that point. No one will remember what Darling did for the game’s first 39 minutes and 56 seconds. But they’ll sure remember what he did to send St. John’s to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. – Cobb
Winner: The Ben McCollum masterpiece
Iowa is off to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 after upsetting top-seeded Florida, 73-72. Iowa used a barrage of sharp matchup-hunting to twist Florida’s defense into a pretzel, and Alvaro Folgueiras delivered the game-winning 3-pointer with less than five seconds remaining. Ben McCollum has now won over 80% of his games (449-107) in his career. Indiana, Maryland and Minnesota were the other Big Ten teams involved in the 2025 coaching carousel, but it’s clear that Iowa was the major winner with the McCollum coup.
Florida’s roster was much more talented than Iowa’s, but the Hawkeyes were the better team Sunday. – Trotter
Loser: Florida’s title repeat hopes crash and burn
Todd Golden’s bid for a national championship repeat has fallen flat. The Gators fell 73-72 to No. 9 seed Iowa, and the hot spots aren’t hard to find. Florida’s usually reliable interior defense got gashed. Iowa shot over 70% on 2s against Florida today. No team had ever done that against Golden in his 144-game tenure in Gainesville. Iowa sliced and diced one of the elite rim defenses in the sport.
Florida just didn’t get enough from Rueben Chinyelu, who was in foul trouble for long stretches. Alex Condon delivered 21 points but struggled on defense. Xaivian Lee had 17 points and three big 3-pointers, but made a gaffe in the final seconds by not taking the potential game-winning layup at the horn.
Florida won the SEC. It earned a No. 1 seed. This season was far from a failure, but the ending was gut-wrenching. — Trotter
Winner: Iowa State’s DNA shines clear
Iowa State played like it was backed into a corner without Joshua Jefferson. Even when offense was hard to come by in the first half and jumpers were going awry, Iowa State dug deep using defense, defense and more defense. The Cyclones blew up every Kentucky action in the second half of its runaway, 82-63, win. Iowa State forced 20 Kentucky turnovers and held the Wildcats to just 0.91 points per possession. – Trotter
Loser: Kentucky’s final loss sums up its entire season
Less than 48 hours after Kentucky thrillingly defeated Santa Clara to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, it fell flat against No. 2 seed Iowa State. The irony of that stretch is it’s a perfect microcosm of Kentucky’s season as a whole: a dramatic win followed by a letdown loss. Kentucky wasn’t favored in this game against Iowa State; however, Iowa State was without star player Joshua Jefferson after he suffered an ankle injury in the first round against Tennessee State. Kentucky couldn’t overcome its turnovers, and now major question marks surround the program heading into the offseason.
The Wildcats were one of the most disappointing teams
in the sport after lofty preseason expectations centered around a roster worth over $20 million. A second-round loss isn’t the Kentucky standard. – Salerno
Winner: Purdue’s dual-pronged attack
Defending Purdue was a game of pick your poison for Miami on Sunday as the Boilermakers escaped with a 79-69 victory. The Boilermakers shot 53.2% from the floor as the duo of Fletcher Loyer and C.J. Cox combined to drill 7 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Cox exploded for three 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the first half as the Boilermakers erased a 7-point deficit.
With Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff wreaking havoc on the interior with 27 combined points for the Boilermakers and quality shooters surrounding them on the perimeter, Purdue earned what felt like a never-ending series of good looks. Star point guard Braden Smith finished just 3 of 12 from the floor, but it didn’t matter as he dished out eight assists to a balanced group of teammates who handled the scoring load. – Cobb
Winner: Tennessee marches to fourth straight Sweet 16
Tennessee had been to one Elite Eight before Rick Barnes’ arrival for the 2015-16 season. Now, the No. 6 seed Volunteers are one win away from going for a third straight season. Sunday’s 79-72 win over No. 3 seed Virginia sent the Volunteers into the Sweet 16 for a fourth straight season, marking an unprecedented run of success for both Barnes and the Tennessee program. Even during the height of Barnes’ 17-year run at Texas, the Longhorns never made it to the second weekend of the Big Dance in four straight seasons. Similarly, Tennessee never enjoyed a run of tournament success quite like this under Bruce Pearl. The Barnes-Tennessee pairing, now in its 11th season, has gone better than anyone could have envisioned when both were in need of revitalization in 2015. – Cobb
