Overview
The Big Ten men's ice hockey tournament is the conference tournament for the Big Ten Conference. The winner of the tournament receives an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The tournament was first held in 2014, the first year of conference play; the first four tournaments alternated between Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Due to the addition of Notre Dame to conference play, a new playoff format was introduced for the 2018 tournament, utilizing campus sites instead.
2014–2017
From 2014 through 2017, all six Big Ten teams participated in a single-elimination tournament held over three days at one neutral host site. These four tournaments alternated between Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
2018–present
Due to poor attendance at the neutral site tournaments, and the addition of Notre Dame as a seventh Big Ten team in hockey, a new format was introduced in 2018. The No. 1 team in the regular-season conference standings automatically advances to the conference semifinals, while the remaining teams are seeded into best-of-three quarterfinals to determine the three remaining teams. The remainder of the playoff is single-elimination. The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members
There are currently seven member schools, with all seven participating in the men's division.
Performance by team
The code in each cell represents the furthest the team made it in the respective tournament: * Team not in Big Ten * Quarterfinals (4 teams from 2014 to 2017, 6 teams afterwards) * Semifinals * Finals * Champion Note: the 2020 tournament was cancelled prior to the start of the semifinal round.
External links
*Big Ten Conference *Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament