One of the biggest conversations about college basketball is the conference tournament. No one knows what it will look like. Now as people have pointed out, these conferences are obligated to play them, or they stand to lose significant money. Multiply that by the money lost last year by not playing and things could get really ugly. But still, you might see teams decide to not play in the conference tournament. That the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. It would be on both sides of the spectrum. Either a team is too good and does not need the extra games to make a case for a lower seed in the tournament. Or a team is terrible and it’s highly unlikely they’ll win the tournament for an automatic bid. While Wisconsin is likely a lock for the tournament, they probably cannot opt-out of the Big Ten tourney.

Greg Gard said the Big Ten coaches all spoke this week. Wouldn't go into specifics, but you can tell there's still a lot of unknowns with the league in terms of finishing the schedule, playing the Big Ten tournament and opting out of playing the tournament.

— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) January 25, 2021

Wisconsin might need the tournament to boost their profile in the NCAA Tournament. With how good the Big Ten is this year, they could potentially get multiple one seeds and multiple 2 or 3 seeds. I assume that the committee will take a team that played that championship week over a team that takes it off. There are only a few teams in college hoops who are above this rule in 2020-2021. Gonzaga, Baylor, and maybe Michigan (If they continue on their path) could say that the conference tournament does them zero favors. That’s not the case for Wisconsin.

To me, Gard’s comments were not about the teams opting out but rather having an action plan in case they do. What does the bracket look like? Should there be more of a round-robin if the number of teams doesn’t work? Let’s put everything on the table. It is a proactive move for Gard and the Big Ten coaches to talk this stuff through. I know the ACC coaches had a similar conversation. Every conference should be discussing this and working with their commissioner to find the best solution.

Charlie.