IlliniSaluki
- IL metro east burbs of St. Louis
Eh I don't care where the teams come from I chose LA for the other half of the tourney cause it would be a good draw/$$$$
Big Ten Tournament 2024-2025
- Status
Because a couple of trips to southern California in January and February sound horrific...?
What?
Also why on Gods green earth would I ever feel sorry for Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota or Wisconsin? All of them benefit from the TV revenue in spite of themselves.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
As far as venues for the BTT, I think the only "good" options are Chicago, Indianapolis, New York (ONLY if at MSG) and LA. People who want to "move it around" are just not being realistic, IMO, and we will see that in Minneapolis when ticket sales suck.
Sure, Illinois had 90% of the crowd last year vs. PSU at the United Center, but guess what? The stands were full for the rest of the BTT once we lost because there are a ton of Big Ten alumni here and Chicago is a draw for a weekend trip. Yes, Indiana has the most fans when it is in Indianapolis (although our 2022 BTT game against them was close to 50/50...), but out-of-state schools like Illinois and Michigan State routinely bring huge contingents due to proximity. And yes, Madison Square Garden is only close for Rutgers, but there are tons of alumni there and it represents a fun weekend trip to a historic venue. Ditto for LA, at least for the weekend trip, except with two very local fan bases soon.
If we have it in Portland, attendance will be entirely dependent on whether or not Oregon loses early. Ditto for Seattle and Washington. While Minneapolis isn't ENTIRELY dependent on Minnesota, it pretty much rests on Wisconsin after Minny loses. Same for Omaha and Nebraska, then Iowa. Same for Detroit and Michigan/MSU, then OSU.
Sure, Illinois had 90% of the crowd last year vs. PSU at the United Center, but guess what? The stands were full for the rest of the BTT once we lost because there are a ton of Big Ten alumni here and Chicago is a draw for a weekend trip. Yes, Indiana has the most fans when it is in Indianapolis (although our 2022 BTT game against them was close to 50/50...), but out-of-state schools like Illinois and Michigan State routinely bring huge contingents due to proximity. And yes, Madison Square Garden is only close for Rutgers, but there are tons of alumni there and it represents a fun weekend trip to a historic venue. Ditto for LA, at least for the weekend trip, except with two very local fan bases soon.
If we have it in Portland, attendance will be entirely dependent on whether or not Oregon loses early. Ditto for Seattle and Washington. While Minneapolis isn't ENTIRELY dependent on Minnesota, it pretty much rests on Wisconsin after Minny loses. Same for Omaha and Nebraska, then Iowa. Same for Detroit and Michigan/MSU, then OSU.
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
It's almost like having 18 teams in a conference is just inherently stupid 
Right!It's almost like having 18 teams in a conference is just inherently stupid
Unless the season is 82 games long and there are no competing teams or leagues to take away the excitement or action from these eighteen teams.
I think the only two good venues are Chicago and Indy. NYC is too expensive, and time shifts the games too early. LA is too long of a trip for most teams. Instead of a 2hr flight, travel is an all day ordeal. (Though I prefer the game times.)
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Don't get me wrong, I think Chicago and Indianapolis are the only two "great" options, and I would fully support the BTT being at one of those two sites each year. Chicago is the best for overall attendance and it gives the Illini the best homecourt advantage, but Indy is a much better setup with its Downtown area, and it is more of an event there. So, I think both are awesome in their own way.
I simply meant that at least New York City and LA have SOME kind of appeal, haha. Detroit and Cleveland should be non-starters.
Yeah NYC is so expensive right now. Chicago is my favorite just by living here and Indy is the perfect host city but another addition I could see being in the rotation would be Milwaukee-New NBA arena, similar ease of getting around to Indy and still a very neutral location for everyone to attend. I know the MAC uses the Cavs arena and Detroit is well Detroit lol
I hate to say this but Omaha and the CHI center wouldn't be the worst theoretical option (although my god I would prefer Chicago by far) The downtown here is essentially built around the city hosting the College World Series and B1G baseball events at Schwab Field, which is a half block away. With the West Coast teams, it would be a geographic compromise spot and the CHI Center is very large and fairly modern.
I hate myself for suggesting it.
I hate myself for suggesting it.
Problem for Omaha: only 3 schools have under a 5 hour drive at that point everyone is flying so you can pick any location from LA, Vegas, Chicago, Indy, DC, NYC. Other than Chicago or Indy it will be hard to fill the arena
Other option is to have every team make the bracket. The Bottom 4 teams play in round 0 on the 1st and 2nd seeds court. Round 1 and 2 are played on home courts of the top 4 seeds and then travel to a neutral site for semifinal and finals. Start on a Sunday end the following Sunday
Omaha is an interesting idea. I don't think it pans out.
- Omaha is closer for 5 teams (Saves 1hr for each of the 4 west teams, and a bunch of time for NE.)
- Omaha is roughly a wash for 2 teams (<30m difference); MN (Omaha is closer), IA (CHI is closer).
- Omaha is significantly further for the other 13 teams (more than an hour), resulting in 2-3 more teams flying vs. CHI. (NE drives vs. IL, WI, NW, PU)
Milwaukee might work. I'm not sure what it gains other than "different."
- Downtown CHI to MIL is ~2hrs by Metra, including the 1-1.5km walk from the station to the arena. (Faster than driving/parking.)
- Madison to MIL is 1:45 - 2 hrs, including the walk. This is roughly a wash with driving/parking.
- CU to MIL by train is painful. The 10:30am train gets you to a 6pm game. (Includes a transfer in CHI and assumes all goes well.)
I suspect that IL, and PU will fly, whereas they probably drive to CHI. No one else really changes.
Last edited:
Make it a two weekend tournament. 1st weekend: Friday play in games, then “sweet sixteen” with 8 games on Saturday & Sunday. That way all teams are included in the first weekend. Then you have 8 teams left, play 2 games Thursday night, 2 Friday night. Final four Saturday and Championship on selection Sunday.
That's probably exactly what they're trying to avoid.
Anything involving "home court" gets really ugly with the west coast teams. Travel to/from the west coast takes 8hrs each way on good days (door to door).
As a fan, I like this idea. Brings more meaning to the season and isn't a very high bar, plus gives a lot of incentive to the top teams to get the bye. I think 12 deep gets in every team that has a remote chance to win it. Further down, you're relegated from the post-season, and that seems fair.
With 18 teams in the BTT, how many do you think can make the NCAAs in a good year? Does a 12 teams tourney ensure that every bubble team who needs just 1-2 more good wins has a chance to get them? I'm not so sure. We had 9/14 teams make the tournament one year. I think another team (2 more?) were on the bubble where 2 BTT wins would push them over.
I'm fine dropping the tail end. The question is what is the tail in a good BTT year? My guess is the tourney needs to be at least 13 if not 14.
Indy and NYC are both on Eastern Time. I'd rather not do NYC selfishly because Indy is darn close
Chicago, Chicago, Chicago. My top three choices.
I think it’s instructive that the Pac-12 (RIP), despite their largest alumni centers being overwhelmingly in LA and the Bay Area, ended up moving both their basketball conference tournament and football conference championship game to Las Vegas and they have been much more well-attended. The common assumption that LA is the best Western location for a neutral site for a Big Ten tournament or conference championship game isn’t correct. Vegas honestly makes even more sense for the Big Ten compared to the Pac-12 to the extent we ever go out West: there is a larger proportion of Midwestern transplants living there (similar to Phoenix), it’s still an easy drive for the LA fan bases, flights and hotels are plentiful, and it’s a destination where neutral fans and/or fans of even the worst teams will travel to because of the destination itself.
By the way, I’ll believe the B1G leaving out teams from the conference tournament when I see it. Coaches and ADs always seem to be more open to reducing games, reducing teams, etc., but then when you tell the university presidents that they might be locked out of a what used to be a guaranteed trip to Chicago/NYC/LA/DC/Vegas/Indy to meet with top donors and conference officials, they often push back. It happened when the old Big East of the 2000s that had 16 teams initially just took 12 teams to the tournament at Madison Square Garden, but after a few years, the university presidents of schools that got left out got really perturbed and they went to having all 16 teams go.
The football championship game is supposed to be a de facto playoff game for the elite teams, but the basketball tournament is more of a “family reunion” for the whole conference. If the Big Ten is still going to have at least 14 or 15 teams in its tournament, then I honestly don’t see the purpose of leaving anyone out at that point. It’s way more punitive to those bottom 3 or 4 teams (or more broadly, overall conference harmony) than it is helpful to everyone else.
The football championship game is supposed to be a de facto playoff game for the elite teams, but the basketball tournament is more of a “family reunion” for the whole conference. If the Big Ten is still going to have at least 14 or 15 teams in its tournament, then I honestly don’t see the purpose of leaving anyone out at that point. It’s way more punitive to those bottom 3 or 4 teams (or more broadly, overall conference harmony) than it is helpful to everyone else.
Chad Fleck
- Eureka, IL
After reading all of this and pondering, I'd like to go back to 10 teams in the conference. 
Although people have been raving about how Minneapolis does when hosting NCAA events. I've never been, but a lot talk about how well things are run by the entire city
Yeah, the B1G 14 or B1G 18 just doesn't sound right.After reading all of this and pondering, I'd like to go back to 10 teams in the conference.
After reading all of this and pondering, I'd like to go back to 10 teams in the conference.
I understand the nostalgia, but in this world, it’s kill or be killed. We are VERY fortunate that we are in one of the two conferences (the other being the SEC) that’s an apex predator as opposed to being hunted. Believe me - we aren’t in a position to be valued more highly than Stanford and Cal in the conference realignment game and they only got into the ACC by the skin of their teeth while taking a massive pay cut when the Pac-12 fall apart. For better or worse, realignment at the top level is almost completely about football value even more so than 10 years ago. Anyone that thinks that we’d be protected by our market (if you count Chicago to be our market) and basketball is very sorely mistaken as shown by how Stanford and Cal were thisclose to not having a power conference home. This is a football-driven world and we have very little to no power in that world.
We really have no right to complain about Big Ten expansion: we’re one of the schools that *needs* the Big Ten to do whatever is possible to stay at the top of the food chain.
Last edited:
- Status