The Big Ten announced in a news release Thursday that the first Big Ten women’s volleyball postseason tournament will debut this upcoming season, becoming the second power conference to do so after the SEC. 

The conference has scheduled the tournament to take place from Nov. 20-25 at Fishers Event Center in Fishers, Indiana. The tournament will crown the conference champion, which will automatically earn a playoff berth in the NCAA tournament. Previously, the Big Ten champion was determined based on regular-season standings.

“I love everything about this. It’s promoting our game. Our game is very exciting, and we can promote it even more in these great athletes and promote the Big Ten,” USC Head Coach Brad Keller said Thursday in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I just love where the commissioner’s coming at, and his vision and what we’re going towards.”

The top 15 teams in the 18-team conference will compete in a five-day, five-round tournament format to ultimately determine the automatic NCAA qualifier. The top four seeds will receive byes into the quarterfinal round of the bracket, with the next five seeds getting to skip the first round.

With the addition of the tournament, the regular season will be shortened from 20 matches to 17, with each team playing every other exactly one time. 

While the Big Ten typically receives multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament beyond just the automatic qualifier — where Nebraska qualified in 2025 — Keller said the tournament’s addition will be helpful as a way to prepare for the NCAAs and give teams one more chance to prove they deserve an at-large bid.

“You can at least prep for what tournament [play] looks like. … If you’re trying to get into the tournament, it gives you an opportunity. It gives you life,” Keller said. “It makes you compete towards the end of the season and not possibly phone it in.”

In its 2025 campaign, USC finished tied for third overall in the Big Ten standings with a 15-5 conference record, earning an NCAA Tournament berth and hosting the first and second tournament rounds at home, though the Trojans ultimately fell in the second round to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.