Big 10 Plays It Safe

June 5, 2011

Park Ridge, Ill. - The Big Ten Conference announced today that the Council of Presidents/Chancellors approved a recommendation from university administrators for the cities of Chicago, Hoffman Estates and Indianapolis to rotate as the host sites for the Big Ten Football Championship Games and Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments for a four-year period beginning with the 2012-13 academic year.
The inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in December, and that facility will also host the title game in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The 2011 Big Ten Football Championship Game will be played in prime time on December 3, 2011, with the winner earning the Big Ten Championship and a chance to play in the Rose Bowl Game or Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game.

The Big Ten Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments have been held jointly in Indianapolis and Conseco Fieldhouse for the last four years and will be back in the Circle City in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The 2013 and 2015 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournaments will return to Chicago and the United Center, which hosted the inaugural men's tournament in 1998 and on seven total occasions, most recently in 2007. The Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament will be held in suburban Chicago for the first time when the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., hosts the event in 2013 and 2015.

The Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament has been held in only two cities in its first 14 years of existence, including the first four years in Chicago from 1998-2001. Indianapolis first hosted the event in 2002 and the cities rotated as the home of the men's tournament, with the Windy City hosting the event in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and the Circle City holding the tournaments in 2004 and 2006. The 2008 tournament marked the first of a five-year commitment to host both the men's and women's events in Indianapolis through 2012. Indianapolis has been the home of the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament in 16 of the event's 17 years, including the last 10 events at Conseco Fieldhouse.