Big Ten basketball tournaments headed to Minneapolis, breaks Chicago-Indy stronghold

At the same time the Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday that its tentpole football game would remain in Indianapolis, it also awarded Minneapolis multiple postseason basketball tournaments.

COVID-19 and the scheduling rethink it forced led to back-to-back Big Ten tournaments (men’s and women’s) being held in Indianapolis. The 2021 tournaments had been slated for Chicago, before safety protocols and efficiency concerns led the conference to pivot to Indy. The Big Ten elected to keep the 2022 tournaments on their previously arranged schedule at Gainbridge Fieldhouse the following year.

Next season’s men’s tournament will rotate back to Chicago, while the 2023 women’s tournament will be held in Minneapolis. In 2024, both events will be staged in the Twin Cities, a first for a sports town that has recently hosted both men’s and women’s Final Fours, as well as the 2018 Super Bowl.

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“I would absolutely say Minneapolis put forward the best, most competitive basketball RFP. They are an emerging sports city. They have a fantastic downtown footprint, similar to Indianapolis, where you don’t even need to go outside to get to a venue,” Big Ten Deputy Commissioner and Chief Sports Officer Diana Sabau told IndyStar. “We believe taking our basketball tournaments to Minneapolis will be a great experience for our Big Ten fans.”

The move will mark the Big Ten’s first break from the Chicago-Indianapolis rotation for its men’s tournament since the conference staged the event in Washington and New York in consecutive seasons, in 2017 and 2018.

It will also be the first time the men’s tournament has been held inside the traditional Big Ten footprint but outside Indy or Chicago, and just the second time that’s been the case for the women’s tournament. The 2001 women’s tournament was held in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“It really goes back to paying forward to the communities, and giving communities an experience they perhaps haven’t ever had,” Sabau said. “It goes to having and creating experiences for youth in the community, so if they can see it, they can be it.”

The conference has not scheduled either tournament out beyond 2024. 

Indiana Sports Corp President Ryan Vaughn told IndyStar prior commitments led the Sports Corp and its partners not to submit a bid to host the tournaments in question in this cycle. But he underscored their desire to see both events back in Indianapolis soon.

"The Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were successfully held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2022," Vaughn said in a statement, "and we look forward to hosting these great basketball events again in the very near future.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.