I've been to several B1G Baseball tournaments. With the exception of Omaha back in 2014 (Nebraska and Iowa made deep runs) attendance has always been lacking. The day games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I usually low attended games. If local teams get knocked out early, their fans usually stay home.
I realize this next part will never impact any of you, or if any of you would care. But for traveling media the bigger stadiums make the most sense. You have 8 different radio crews setting up the first two days, video crews for each team, photographers from each team along with local and other media outlets. Most if not all B1G stadiums are not set up to handle that many media, most B1G Stadiums do not have media work rooms or rooms to hold post game press conferences.
They provide meals for the media all day long or at least before every game. You need a kitchen set up and a dining area to feed everyone. Once again most B1G Stadiums have none of these. For TV you need a lot of room for all their trucks and equipment. The BTN crew is double it's normal size for these events.
As fans, they usually could care less about us in the media, but when you spend several hours at the Stadium several days in a row, these amenities are crucial.
Lots of good comments above, but the truth is, the players love playing in these venues, even with small crowds. Everything is first class, the field, lights, indoor cages, bathrooms next to the dugouts etc. A central location would be ideal, but the venue has to be willing as well. It's a ton of work on the Grounds Crew and general staffing for the venue.
Maybe as the Stadiums improve across the B1G, it may change. But knowing what it takes to put this event on, it would be a nightmare for many schools to attempt this. Even the Softball Tournament is starting to run into these problems, and it's a single elimination format.
