In a nod to its four West Coast newcomers, the Big Ten will hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Las Vegas one time each in the next four years, the league office announced Wednesday.

The news comes eight days after Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti announced that Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium will remain as host of the Big Ten football championship game through 2028.

Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena will host the 2027 women’s and the 2028 men’s basketball tournament. The Pac-12, the former home of new Big Ten members USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, staged its men’s basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena from 2017 to 2024; its women’s tournament had been held at other Las Vegas venues since 2019.

Other men’s basketball tournament future sites includes Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2025 and ’27 and Chicago’s United Center in ’26. Gainbridge Fieldhouse also will stage the ’25 and ’26 women’s basketball tournaments, while Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena will host for the first time during the 2028 tournament.

“I’ve been really pleased in the interest from cities across, not just from the football side, but men’s and women’s basketball was just really good,” Petitti told The Athletic last week.

It’s a similar move to the…

Oregon women’s volleyball coach Matt Ulmer admits he was nervous but hopeful when the Big Ten announced the upcoming volleyball schedule.

“I had no idea what it was going to look like for the four West schools,” Ulmer said. “But at least at the end of the day, I think they did a really good job of keeping in mind not missing class.”

With Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA entering the Big Ten in August, the 18-team Big Ten stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans and across four time zones. Strategic scheduling and travel were more imperative this year than ever before for the Big Ten staff, especially for Olympic sports like women’s volleyball, of which each school has 20 conference matches.

To ensure the West Coast members avoid hardships beyond on-floor competition, the Big Ten office solicited feedback from its coaches on double-play opponents. In collaboration across the athletic departments, there was a goal to bunch together as many trips as possible and limit missed class time.

2024 #B1G Conference Volleyball Schedule Announced https://t.co/2hgUQ9gdq2

— Big Ten Volleyball (@B1GVolleyball) June 12, 2024

The West Coast schools all face one another home-and-home and split matches with the other 14 schools home or away. Those seven road trips east are…

On Jan. 19, two days after he became the most coveted football player in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and mere hours after he welcomed Ohio State coaches for a recruiting visit, Caleb Downs announced his change-of-address plans. The freshman safety who’d earned second-team All-America honors at Alabama committed to the Buckeyes. Not long after, Downs and his father began relocating to Columbus.

Getting there was simple enough. Getting around was another matter.

Some wheels needed to be put in motion.

“I get a call from someone on the coaching staff and they said, ‘Hey, I’m here with Caleb and his dad now. Are you looking to add somebody else to your team?’” says Rick Ricart, the CEO and owner of Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus. “Would you be willing to do a car deal for him?’”

For decades, these were shifty conversations. Local car dealerships had long been conduits for the whispered inducements coaches or boosters promised talented players. When discovered, scandal erupted. Repercussions were often stark. Then came the seismic summer of 2021, when changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules allowed college athletes to earn money without fear of NCAA sanctions.

Car dealers nationwide quickly exchanged leases and keys for players boasting about their new…

RANCHOS VERDES, Calif. — Palm trees, a Pacific Ocean view and courtyard dinners at the Terranea Resort provided the backdrop this week for one of the Big Ten’s most important group of meetings in the league’s 128-year history.

More than 100 administrators, university leaders, faculty representatives and head coaches from the Big Ten’s 18 members and league office gathered at this plush, picturesque location to discuss an upcoming legal settlement that fundamentally will change college athletics. Those officials were sequestered with security for every function, ranging from outdoor meals to friendly mixers.

The topics weren’t limited to what’s known as the House v. NCAA case, which will cost the NCAA and its member schools $2.7 billion should it be approved. The league added a four-school West Coast wing starting this year, and the spring meetings were as much of a networking event as an opportunity to explore a path forward as a league and an industry.

“I think that we have a chance at this moment right now in college athletics to really reshape the model in the most meaningful way in our lifetimes and maybe the most meaningful way that has ever been,” said Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman, the new Division I Council chair. “How can we build this new…

The Big Ten’s record-breaking women’s basketball television ratings have translated to a new attendance record for next month’s Big Ten tournament.

Two weeks before the league’s top teams compete at Minneapolis’ Target Center, every session has sold out for the first time, the conference announced Friday. Big Ten officials estimate more than 109,000 fans will attend the seven sessions and shatter the league’s total attendance record of 47,923, which was set last year in Minneapolis.

The #B1G Conference is excited to announce the 2024 TIAA @B1Gwbball Tournament is sold out for the first time in its history! pic.twitter.com/i4mA78d9Tx

— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) February 23, 2024

Call it the Caitlin Clark Effect. The Iowa senior guard, who broke the women’s NCAA career scoring mark last week, has helped the Hawkeyes sell out and/or set attendance records at 30 of 32 arenas this year. Iowa became the first Big Ten women’s program to sell out its entire season and played before only two crowds at an exempt tournament in Florida that were not at full capacity.

With the Hawkeyes’ proximity to Minneapolis, fans flocked north last year to see Iowa win the league championship. That seems to be the case this year, too, only with tickets sold well in advance. Plus,

IOWA CITY, Iowa — With Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten in August, the league has already finalized new scheduling models for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball that prioritize competitive balance, geography and rivalries. The next scheduling phase involves Olympic sports with the same key tenets steering the process as their higher-profile colleagues, but cost and travel have an even greater impact.

On Feb. 19-20, Big Ten officials and school athletics administrators will meet at league headquarters in Rosemont, Ill. to discuss and perhaps finalize scheduling principles for fall Olympic sports. The spring sports likely will settle plans in May. With different priorities guiding each sport, scheduling ideas have ranged from true rotations to regional preference to even some sports on the same campus traveling together to save costs.

“In terms of some of the efficiencies, I don’t think that has been discussed as much because you’re talking about principles right now and not dates,” Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz said. “So if you’re going to figure out if there can be shared travel, you’re going to have to have the actual schedule in front of you to do that.”

GO DEEPER

Big Ten to invite 15 teams to conference hoops…

CHICAGO — Midway through his weekly media availability, Nebraska women’s volleyball coach John Cook was asked about Fox’s viewership for a Minnesota-Wisconsin matchup.

It was 1.66 million, more than any Sunday sporting event shy of the NFL and barely less than the NASCAR race. The volleyball match’s TV numbers dwarfed the NBA, NHL, Formula 1 and multiple soccer matches that day.

Cook was stunned.

“Wow, that’s awesome for the Big Ten and awesome for volleyball,” Cook said. “I did not know that. We’ve got another record to go after.”

Women’s volleyball and basketball have grown steadily in viewership and took a major ratings jump last winter. From the regular season and NCAA women’s basketball tournament shattering records to now the most-viewed women’s volleyball match in history, the Big Ten sees the environment as ripe for major investment. It’s a moment when strategy meets the phenomenon.

“It’s a viewer-friendly sport to watch in the sense that whether you’re there in person or you’re watching on TV, it’s a fast-paced game,” Big Ten chief operating officer Kerry Kenny said. “It’s also a sport that over time we’ve identified where it seems to trend younger and more female in terms of the demographic audience of who’s actually…

MINNEAPOLIS — Tony Petitti’s six-month anniversary of his hiring as Big Ten commissioner comes Wednesday, and that half-year has consisted of significant change across the college sports landscape.

From adding Washington and Oregon to finalizing media rights contracts to working with fellow commissioners on a 12-team College Football Playoff, Petitti hardly had time for a honeymoon period after his May 15 start date.

“I feel absolutely privileged to have the job. I really do,” Petitti said “It’s an incredible responsibility. You see it and feel it every time you’re on campus.”

Petitti spoke with The Athletic as part of the Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball media days at the Target Center, which will host the women’s tournament for the second straight year and the men’s tournament for the first time. There were plenty of items to discuss, ranging from the 2024 football schedules to current and future basketball plans to locations for future postseason sites. With that, here are 10 big topics that Petitti addressed on Monday.

Future football schedules

The Big Ten unveiled conference football opponents from 2024 through 2028 last week, and Petitti basked in the way it was arranged. For him, the confluence of implementing an equitable conference-wide…

We’re 11 days away from the start of practices and less than six weeks away from games. The offseason managed to fly by, aided no doubt in part by the fact the transfer portal provided ample entertainment and drama.

As good as last season was (and I’ve got 10 million folks who tuned in to the national title game who can back me up on that), I have a feeling this season will somehow managed to best it.

So, let’s get to mailbag questions that readers sent in this week.

Besides LSU and South Carolina, who are the 4-6 teams that if all goes well (no injuries, player development, etc.) have a legitimate chance of winning it all this season? — Ce S.

I see we have an SEC fan in Ce S. (which spelled backward is SEC — I smell a conspiracy!). Though I could certainly see either of those teams hoisting the trophy in April in Cleveland, here are a few other non-SEC teams that will give the Tigers and Gamecocks a run for their money.

• UConn: The “no injuries” part of your question applies heavily to the Huskies, who’ve been snakebitten the last two seasons. But with Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd healthy and taking on the scoring load, this will be a team that’s tough to stop. Aaliyah Edwards’ growth is a massive storyline to watch, and she could be the difference-maker…

The Big Ten is expected to officially approve Oregon and Washington as new members later Friday, league sources tell The Athletic.

The news comes after a frenzied 36 hours. Early Friday morning, momentum for the two schools had slowed considerably, but then the Pac-12 met to discuss its new media rights deal and its future. Afterward, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors met, and the group eventually agreed to offer official invitations to Oregon and Washington — to become the league’s 17th and 18th members. The invites come a little more than a day after The Athletic reported that the Big Ten presidents authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to pursue expansion, and one week after Colorado left the Pac-12 for its former home conference, the Big 12.

The additions come barely 14 months after the Big Ten welcomed Pac-12 flagship programs USC and UCLA as new members beginning Aug. 2, 2024. That movement launched the Pac-12 into chaos in the aftermath, especially in almost-daily showdowns with the Big 12 over expansion.

The Pac-12’s inability to secure a quality linear media rights contract coupled with the Big 12’s media rights agreement, reached last fall, led many Pac-12 programs to consider leaving the historic conference. It came to a head last week when Colorado…