The Big Ten "will play its men’s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden" in '18, with a formal announcement likely coming tomorrow, according to sources cited by Pete Thamel of SI.com. MSG "will still host the Big East Tournament" that year, with the Big Ten holding its event "the week prior." The presence of the Big Ten tourney in N.Y. "will make the city the heartbeat of college basketball for more than a week" -- the ACC men's tournament "begins a two-year run" at Barclays Center in '17 (SI.com, 12/6). Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said, "We wanted to get out there as soon as we could." He added that the Big Ten "would stage a men’s basketball and men’s hockey doubleheader at the Garden" starting in '16, with the first doubleheader featuring Michigan and Penn State. In N.Y., Marc Tracy notes the '18 Big Ten tournament "will run from Feb. 20 to March 4, before most major conferences hold their tournaments and a week before the NCAA tournament field is selected" (N.Y. TIMES, 12/7). Delany called MSG "iconic, historic and very cool." In Chicago, Teddy Greenstein reported Delany "had to convince league presidents and chancellors that long-term branding and revenue opportunities trumped short-term costs." With the tournament being played one week earlier, this means "more conference games in December and, more jarringly, no significant games in the week before teams try to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/7).
GETTING IN THE ROTATION: N.Y. joins Chicago ('15), Indianapolis ('16) and DC ('17) as future host sites for the Big Ten tournament, and Delany said, "It will be a rotation. That will probably be somebody else's decision, but I think you will see more major events in the Northeast in the next decade. Hopefully this does well, we evaluate and see what happens." Michigan State AD Mark Hollis said that Big Ten schools "have been working on a scheduling format in order to accommodate pushing up the conference schedule to play the tournament a week earlier" (ESPN.com, 12/6). In N.Y., Zach Braziller noted this is the latest move by Delany to "extend his conference’s brand into the northeast" (N.Y. POST, 12/7). But in Chicago, Seth Gruen noted there "are drawbacks" to making scheduling tweaks for the tournament. Ending a week early "makes for an unconventional break in the schedule." Big teams that are selected for the NCAA tournament "will have an extended layoff." The Big Ten "always has ended its tournament on Selection Sunday" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/7).
