Big Ten releases sites for future conference tournaments

The New National Big Ten

The Big Ten announced the sites for the 2025-28 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, including Las Vegas and Detroit. The full announcement:

Well, seeing the tournament in Indianapolis in 2025 is a comfort. Both Indiana basketball teams should be projected to finish near the top of the conference this year, so having the tournament in a familiar, close to home arena should be an advantage.

The women’s team will be back at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2026, while the men’s tournament will be held at the United Center, another familiar site. The last time the men’s tournament was hosted there, Indiana reached the semifinal before losing a nail-biter to Penn State.

Things get weird in 2027 when the women’s tournament heads to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That stadium is home to the Golden Knights and Aces, with a listed capacity for basketball games of 18,000.

The men play in Indianapolis in 2027, but will follow in the women’s footsteps to T-Mobile arena for 2028. 2028 will also inaugurate a new host arena when the women head to Little Ceasar’s Arena, home to the Detroit Red Wings and former NCAA Tournament host site.

Only time will tell whether the west coast fans can fill T-Mobile arena, or whether midwest fans will travel enough to make this a worthy financial risk for the new conference. When the conference first moved eastward, it attempted hosting in Washington D.C. and New York before abandoning those sites for its traditional midwestern hosts.

With the additions to the conference, it made sense that the Tournament would be pulled west, at least temporarily. I’m not going to pretend it’s not weird though!