Conference play began on December 27, 2010.|Ohio state won the regular season Big Ten title.

The Big Ten Conference hosted second and third round games of the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament at the United Center in Chicago March 18 and 20, 2011.

Lauer, Moore, Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber, and Ohio State's David Lighty were named as candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

[9] The Big Ten Conference entered the season with five teams ranked in the USA Today/ESPN Preseason Top 25 Men's Basketball Coaches' Poll.

[13] The non-conference portion of the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010, with Illinois defeating UC Irvine in the opening round of the 2010 Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic.

[15] On December 17, 2010, the Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany announced that Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo would serve a one-game suspension for what the National Collegiate Athletic Association determined was a "inadvertent secondary recruiting violation".

[20] The Big Ten's 12,826-fans average attendance led the nation the 35th consecutive season by more than 1,500 fans more than the next-closest conference.

[21] Throughout the conference regular season, the Big Ten offices named a player of the week each Monday.

Demetri McCamey, Sullinger, Johnson E'Twaun Moore and Jon Leuer were Naismith Award Midseason Top 30 List selections.

Moore, Leuer and David Lighty were selected among the ten Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalists.

On March 10, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association released its 2010–11 Men's All-District Teams, based on voting from its national membership.

Jordan Taylor, Jon Leuer, Jared Sullinger, JaJuan Johnson, E'Twaun Moore were among the 20 players on the final ballot for the John R. Wooden Award.

[52] The Associated Press named Talor Battle, Jon Leuer, and E'Twaun Moore as honorable mention selections.

[54][55] Sullinger, Aaron Craft, Jereme Richmond and Tim Hardaway Jr. were among the 21 players selected to the 2011 Collegeinsider.com Freshmen All-America team.

[56] Following the season four players were invited to the June 17 – 24, 2011 17-man tryouts for the 12-man 2011 FIBA Under-19 World Championship team by USA Basketball: Hardaway (UofM), Keith Appling (MSU), Melsahn Basabe (Iowa) and Meyers Leonard (Ill.).

[57] The 12 selected players will compete as Team USA in the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championships in Latvia from June 30 – July 10, 2011.

This marked the fourth consecutive season that the Big Ten had at least 2 Sweet Sixteen participants (Ohio State and Wisconsin).