Big Ten Sends Team To Final Four For Sixth Time In Seven Years

Saturday was a historic night for the Michigan Wolverines and the Big Ten. After taking down Texas A&M in the Sweet 16 on Thursday evening, Michigan was staring at an opportunity to move on to the Final Four with a victory over Florida State.

And that’s exactly what the Wolverines did.

Despite an underwhelming offensive performance that featured plenty of frustrating shot attempts, Michigan was able to get past the Seminoles and advance to the program’s eighth Final Four in school history and its first since 2013.

By any measure, it was a special night in Ann Arbor.

And it was for the Big Ten as well.

While the league was “down” this season, the Big Ten once again found itself in the Final Four with Michigan’s win over Florida State. And that’s not all. The conference has now sent six teams to the Final Four since 2012 and at least one team in five of the last seven years.

Here’s how that compares to some other conferences:

Years With At Least One Final Four Team Since 2012:

• 5 - Big Ten
• 4 - SEC
• 3 - ACC*, Big East*
• 2 - Big 12*, Missouri Valley
• 1 - American, Pac 12, West Coast

Simply put, no league has been as consistently good at the top than the Big Ten over the last seven seasons. It’s quite an achievement to send a team to the final weekend that regularly and the Big Ten has done it yet again.

Big Ten and Wolverine fans will certainly be hoping for much more next weekend in San Antonio, but John Beilein and his staff have certainly already achieved a great deal.

* - Conference still has a team playing in the Elite Eight.