The Big Ten is now a conference that stretches from sea to shining sea. The addition of Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC means changes are coming to be a more nationwide brand. Part of that change will be expanded locations of the Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
The Big Ten tournament is fairly young compared to other conferences beginning in 1998 for the men and 1995 for the women. During that period, the tournament has been played mostly in Midwest venues such as Chicago and Indianapolis. As the league grew to add East Coast schools, the tournament occasionally landed in places like Washington DC and New York. Last year Minneapolis made its first appearance as the host city, but for the most part, the tournament has alternated between the original two.
New cities have now been announced through the 2028 season. Next year, both men and women will be in familiar territory going back to Indy. Then after that, stops will be made in Detroit and Las Vegas. It looks like outside of Vegas, the tournament is still going to have a Midwest feel for the next few years.
Spanning all 3 time zones across the Big Ten!
Here are the hosts for the 2025-2028 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments: https://t.co/lDiAEA5oVI#B1GMBBT l #B1GWBBT pic.twitter.com/clkRFmWP7O
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) July 31, 2024
West Coast fans probably don’t love the favoring of the Central and Eastern time zones. But with conference expansion happening so fast, this is probably the best they could do on short notice as these things are usually planned years in advance.
My guess is the tournament will go west in the next cycle. But until then, most Big Ten fans won’t have to travel quite as far to see a conference champion crowned.
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