INDIANAPOLIS — In an era of college sports defined by paying athletes, NIL deals and the transfer portal, the Big Ten Conference has shown no problems adapting to this changing environment and shows no signs of slowing down its recent sports dominance.

This dominance continued on the night of April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis — the same stadium as the Big Ten Football Championship — as Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 to win its first national championship since 1989.

Thanks to 19 points from junior Elliot Cadeau, and all but one of Michigan’s starters playing over 28 minutes, the Wolverines were able to edge out UConn by six points. Michigan and UConn traded punches in the first half, with Michigan starting off strong thanks to a foul on a Cadeau missed three, which helped Michigan get to an 11-7 lead with 13:30 to go in the first half. From there, UConn bounced back and held a 25-24 lead with 3:16 to go in the first half, primarily thanks to senior forward Alex Caraban’s strong first-half offense.

Soon afterward, Michigan regained the lead on a layup by senior forward Yaxel Ladenborg and didn’t relinquish the lead for the remainder of the night. Ladenborg finished the night with 13 points, two rebounds and one assist in 36 minutes. Forward Morez Johnson Jr. ended the night with a double-double, scoring 12 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes. Michigan finished the game by squashing a last-second comeback try by UConn to keep the Huskies at 63 points. Michigan was finally able to celebrate a basketball national championship for the first time since its 1989 victory over Seton Hall, and it did so deep in Big Ten territory, only four hours from its university’s main campus, and in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 70,000.

Michigan, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and the No. 3-ranked team in the country entering the tournament, entered the game as heavy favorites against the underdog Huskies. UConn entered the tournament as a No. 2 seed and the No. 7-ranked team in the country.

This was UConn’s third trip to the national championship in the past four years, as it defeated San Diego State 73-59 in Houston in 2023 and Purdue 75-60 in Glendale, Arizona, in 2024. UConn has six national championship wins in school history. Despite dismantling Illinois in the Final Four and snatching a miraculous comeback victory over tournament favorite Duke in the Sweet 16, UConn wasn’t able to ride its momentum to its third victory in four years.

The Big Ten Conference continued its sports domination in this tournament. Half of the teams in the Elite Eight were from the Big Ten, with Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Purdue each representing the conference. No other conference had multiple teams in the Elite Eight. Illinois and Michigan each went on to win their respective Elite Eight games and faced off against UConn and Arizona, respectively. While Illinois lost, Michigan was still able to follow through on the recent trend of Big Ten sports domination.

In football, three different Big Ten teams have won the national championship in the past three years. Michigan defeated Washington in 2024, Ohio State defeated Notre Dame in 2025, and Indiana defeated Miami in 2026.

The Big Ten also won the women’s basketball national championship, which saw UCLA destroy South Carolina 79-51 to clinch its first women’s basketball national championship in school history. The conference currently has the top-ranked baseball school in the country, UCLA, and the fifth-ranked softball school in the country, Nebraska.

Meanwhile, UConn’s conference, the Big East, is making a basketball comeback as well. Once a renowned basketball powerhouse made up of Northeast schools, many original Big East schools left the conference after the 2012-13 season for lucrative deals to join bigger conferences. For instance, Syracuse and Boston College left for the ACC, and Rutgers left for the Big Ten. The original Big East won six national championships between Georgetown, Villanova, UConn, Syracuse and the vacated Louisville championship in 2013 before the split. Now, the conference has regained some of its prior prestige, between the two UConn championships and Villanova championships in 2016 and 2018. This year, in the final rankings prior to the tournament, the Big East had UConn and St. John’s both in the top 10, and both made the Sweet 16, where St. John’s lost by 5 to Duke.

Michigan defeated 16-seed Howard, 11-seed St. Louis, 4-seed Alabama, 6-seed Tennessee and 1-seed Arizona, all by 10 or more points, before defeating UConn by six in the championship.

UConn defeated 15-seed Furman, 7-seed UCLA, 3-seed Michigan State and 1-seed Duke in a miraculous 19-point comeback, and 3-seed Illinois before its momentum stalled against Michigan.