Reports: DC to host Big Ten tourney in 2017

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

The Big Ten Conference will conduct a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to announce its men’s basketball tournament will be played at the Verizon Center in 2017, according to multiple reports.

Currently, the league is in the middle of an alternating rotation between Chicago and Indianapolis as host sites for the Big Ten Tournament that ends in 2016 with the United Center hosting next year’s event and Bankers Life Fieldhouse hosting again in 2016 after doing so last March. The nation’s capital will be the first city not named Chicago or Indianapolis to host the now 5-day event with the conference officially adding both Maryland and Rutgers in July.

Under the new format starting next season, there will be two opening round games pitting the league’s bottom four teams against one another. The winner of the 11/14 game would play the following day against the No. 6 seed, while the 12/13 winner draws the No. 5 seed. From there, the format would be like it has been since 2011-12 after the addition of Nebraska.

In an interview with The Washington Post’s Alex Prewitt, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said 2017 would not be the only time D.C. would host the Big Ten Tournament.

On Monday, the Big Ten announced a partnership with the Big East to open the 2015-16 season and the seven concurrent seasons with the Gavitt Tipoff Games, eight games between teams from the two conferences slated to be played at various campus venues.