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…

Connecticut’s emphatic win over Purdue in Monday’s men’s national championship game averaged 14.8 million viewers, Turner Sports said Tuesday, a slight uptick from the Huskies’ 2023 win over San Diego State.

Last year’s title game recorded 14.69 million viewers and was the least-watched men’s title game on record.

By contrast, the women’s national championship game of Iowa-South Carolina drew a record 18.9 million viewers and peaked at 24.1 million, marking the first time women’s title game viewership outpaced the men’s. Viewership for the women’s championship increased 90 percent from 2023 and 289 percent from 2022.

This is from @nielsen — it highlights how historical this women’s Tournament was as far as interest.

I know I’ve said this on this site a thousand times: There’s $$$ sitting there for companies, outlets, individuals if they invest (smartly) in women’s college basketball. Let’s… pic.twitter.com/t4CFP7QYvF

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) April 9, 2024

 

The second consecutive low-viewership number for the men’s title game shouldn’t be much of a surprise. If you are looking for whys, there are a couple of educated guesses.

First, the game was hurt by a large margin of victory. UConn led by as many as 18 points in the 75-60 victory….

Welcome to Part 3 — and the grand finale — of The Athletic’s party props competition for the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments! This weekend, South Carolina (w), Iowa (w), Purdue (m), Alabama (m) and the men and women from UConn and NC State will vie for championships. And we at The Athletic will also hand out a championship title: The Party Prop Champion. Well, technically, there will be five party prop champions, and the prize is a one-year subscription for each winner!

Think you can get the most predictions correct for the semifinals and championship games?

We have 16 new questions plus a tiebreaker for the final weekend of the college basketball tournaments, which covers the semifinal and final games for both men and women. You’ll find seven questions from the men’s tournament, seven from the women’s tournament, two combining them and a final tiebreaker. The questions range from Caitlin Clark 3-pointers to picks for each game and more.

This is mostly intended for entertainment, but are running a contest, and the top five cumulative scores combined from our three contests during the tournaments will win a free one-year gift subscription to The Athletic (additional terms and conditions may apply).

You can fill out the form below to submit your…

The excitement surrounding the women’s Final Four is soaring.

South Carolina attempting to complete an unbeaten season. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark versus Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers in the national semifinals. There are storylines galore.

If fans make the trek to Cleveland, they will have to pay a steep price for a ticket. The starting price for an all-session ticket — both semifinals Friday, and the championship Sunday — to the women’s Final Four was $710 as of Wednesday morning and will likely increase by Friday, according to StubHub. With service fees, it’s a get-in price of $965. The get-in price for Friday’s semifinals was $334, and the cheapest ticket to the championship game was $370 on StubHub (all before service fees).

The average ticket sale price on StubHub — including all-session, semifinal and championship ticket sales — was $718 as of Wednesday morning, a massive leap from last year’s average of $479.

Women’s Final Four tickets are also more expensive than the men’s Final Four in Glendale, Ariz. The men’s Final Four starting price for all session tickets is $608, according to StubHub, and the average ticket sale price is $702. But prices are also much higher for the men’s Final Four this year; the average ticket sale price a year ago on…

The Athletic has live coverage of the NCAA Tournament.

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

The Sweet 16 matchups in the NCAA Tournament didn’t disappoint. Six of the eight games were decided by single digits, and a pair of No. 1 seeds were knocked out. Oh, and a No. 11 seed that once stood 17-14 overall entering the ACC tournament is still standing.

All four Elite Eight matchups offer plenty of intrigue: UConn vs. Illinois, Alabama vs. Clemson, Duke vs. NC State and Purdue vs. Tennessee. The Duke-NC State, Alabama-Clemson and Purdue-Tennessee games are rematches of games from earlier this season.

With the regional finals upon us, here are our latest NCAA Tournament power rankings for all eight remaining national title contenders. We will update this ranking after every round and until the Final Four begins. If the Sweet 16 was any indication, the eight teams left should put on quite a show. Which teams are in the best position to make a run at the championship? Here’s a look at where things stand.

The full NCAA Tournament bracket has been released with UConn leading the way as No. 1 overall.

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Eight double-digit seeds secured first-round upsets in the NCAA Tournament to bust brackets across the country. But when the dust settled on the opening weekend, only one double-digit seed was left standing in the Sweet 16: No. 11 NC State in the South Region.

Despite a season filled with so many evenly-matched teams, every No. 1 and No. 2 seed is still alive in the Sweet 16 for the first time in five years and just the fifth time since the NCAA Tournament began seeding in 1979. Of the 16 games involving one or two seeds, only three were decided by single digits.

With the Sweet 16 upon us, here are our latest NCAA Tournament power rankings for all 16 remaining national title contenders. Consider this our re-seeding of the Sweet 16, if you wish. We will update this ranking after every round and until the Final Four begins. Many of the top-seeded teams have looked dominant. Which one is in the best position to make a run at the championship? Here’s a look at where things stand:

The full NCAA Tournament bracket has been released with UConn leading the way as No. 1 overall.

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

March Madness is upon us.

Well, technically it began during a wild conference tournament season ahead of the NCAA Tournament. But now, we get the really good stuff. The Cinderellas. The players you hadn’t heard of before this week who are now household names. The buzzer-beaters. Ultimately, though, we all want to know who will be cutting down the nets in April. And so we present: the top 16 national title contenders in our NCAA Tournament Power Rankings.

We will update this ranking after every round and until the Final Four begins. If top-seeded teams fall, others will take their place. If some lower-seeded teams look stronger than expected, they’ll move up the list.

Who’s on top to start? Of course it’s Connecticut. Here’s a look at where things stand as we enter Thursday’s first round: