WASHINGTON – Somewhere, on paper, this seemed like a great idea, especially with that “grow the footprint” guy in the conference office. What better way for the Big Ten to build its brand than to plant the flag at “the world’s most famous arena,” Madison Square Garden? Forget that just three of the 14 Big Ten schools are within 300 miles of New York City (for those counting, College Park is actually closer to the Big Apple than State College, Pennsylvania by about 14 miles). Never mind that instead of waiting for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to open up, or choosing to play in the usually available Prudential Center in Newark, they had to move the tournament up a week because the Big East has MSG locked up through 2025. That’s why we had conference games played the first weekend of December. And that’s why there could be teams working on a two-week layoff going into the NCAA Tournament. And let’s not forget the residual effect of the men’s tournament sucking all of the oxygen out of the room while the women’s tournament takes place in Indianapolis at the same time. (The league should have considered moving the women’s tournament to the next weekend to give it maximum exposure). Of course, if the conference lands an extra at-large team than expected and if the Big Ten dominates the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, this will turn out to be a stroke of genius. Thank goodness the tournament returns to Chicago… [Read full story]
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