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    Good Morning, Illini Nation: Where else could the Big Ten tournament be?

    By Scott Richey,

    20 hours ago
    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1Kj6jH_0ukD2tZ000
    Buy Now Amid a sea of orange and blue confetti, the Illinois men’s basketball team celebrates after winning the Big Ten tournament championship on Sunday afternoon at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Scott Richey/The News-Gazette

    Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:

    The Big Ten announced the next four host sites for its conference tournament on Wednesday. On the men's side, the Indianapolis/Chicago rotation returns the next three years — two in Indy, with one in Chicago sandwiched in the middle — before heading West to Las Vegas in 2028.

    But where else might the Big Ten tournament be played in the future?

    The ship has clearly sailed on the tournament rotating between Gainbridge Fieldhouse (where an argument could be made it should always be played) and the United Center. The Big Ten has already ventured to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis in the last decade.

    Now Las Vegas is on deck. And with the women's tournament also going to Detroit in 2028, that's clearly an option for the men at some point. Odds are the Big Ten tournament might actually draw more fans to Little Caesars Arena than the Detroit Pistons currently do.

    The Big Ten is a coast-to-coast conference now. Playing only in the Midwest simply isn't a thing anymore. So where else might the conference tournament be played?

    There are options. If catering to the newest members is the plan, the Big Ten could move its conference tournament to Seattle where there is a neutral site available other than Washington's Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Climate Pledge Arena — home to the Seattle Storm and Seattle Kraken — is an option. Los Angeles also has Crypto.Com Arena (formerly Staples Center). Intuit Dome, which will be the Los Angeles Clippers' new state-of-the-art home, could also be an option.

    And if the Big Ten goes West, it might think it has to go back East again. Illinois has enjoyed its recent trips to Madison Square Garden. Far more than it did it's one-and-done stint in NYC when the Big Ten tournament was there, but unless the Big East has crumbled at some point a decade from now (who knows?) the Big Ten won't have first dibs on MSG.

    But if the Big Ten is looking to be equitable for its new far-flung conference membership, the geographic center of the continental United States (so no Alaska or Hawaii), Google tells me, is Lebanon, Kan. Scoping out big cities from Lebanon, which is close to the Kansas-Nebraska border ... how about the Big Ten tournament in Denver, Omaha, Neb., or Kansas City, Mo.?

    Anything is clearly on the table in this new era of Big Ten hoops.

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