Michigan Beats UConn to Complete Big Ten Title Hat Trick

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan has completed the Big Ten hat trick. 

On Monday, the Wolverines defeated Connecticut 69–63 to capture the program’s first national championship since 1989. It’s also the Big Ten’s first men’s basketball title since 2000 when Michigan State defeated Florida. 

The win came a day after UCLA blew out South Carolina 79–51 to secure its first women’s basketball championship, giving the Big Ten Conference a title in both men’s and women’s basketball and football. 

Indiana won the College Football Playoff in January, defeating Miami 27–21. 

The Big Ten is the first conference to win national titles in those three sports in the same academic year since the SEC did it in 2006–07. That year, Florida won NCAA titles in both the men’s basketball and football while Tennessee won the women’s basketball championship. 

“Look at what we did. We won in football. We won in women’s basketball yesterday and we won in men’s basketball today. I think it shows the strength of our conference,” said Michigan AD Ward Manuel.

The Big Ten’s wins in both tournaments will increase the money the conference gets in the NCAA’s expanded “units” system, which awards more than $226 million based on how far teams advance through the NCAA tournament. The NCAA expanded the system this year to include the semifinal and national championship games. 

It’s unclear exactly how much the conference will make off its hat trick, but it inevitably will push the Big Ten closer to $1 billion in revenue. The conference reported $928 million in revenue for the 2023–24 academic year, according to tax documents. That beat rival SEC by about $90 million, and the Big Ten’s per-school distributions topped those of the SEC by about $10 million. This year the SEC failed to have a team appear in the men’s Final Four or CFP title game, likely widening the financial gap between the two conferences.

The Big Ten’s historic revenue came after a media rights agreement signed in 2022 by previous commissioner Kevin Warren that went into effect the following year. Agreements between the conference and Fox, NBC, and CBS were estimated to pay at least $7 billion over the lifetime of the seven-year deal, FOS reported at the time.