The Big Ten has gone through a serious transformation this year, with the additions of West Coast powers Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington, bolstering conference membership to 18 programs. While the league is still based in the Midwest, it now stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and the league’s future Big Ten tournament sites reflect that expansion.

Two arenas have historically traded off turns as the home of the Big Ten Tournament: Chicago’s United Center and Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Chicago hosted the first four men’s tournaments starting in 1998 and has hosted the event 11 times, most recently in 2023. Indianapolis first hosted in 2002, and will do so again in 2025, its 12th time doing so. The two venues have often traded off years, though Indianapolis had a stretch of five straight Big Ten Tournaments from ’08 to 2012. In 2021, the tournament was bumped from the United Center to Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, to allow for more spacing amid COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

Chicago and Indianapolis aren’t alone, however. After the additions of East Coast programs Maryland and Rutgers, the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament was held at Washington, D.C.’s Verizon Center in ’17 and New York City’s Madison Square Garden in ’18. Minneapolis’s Target Center also earned a turn in ’24, its first time hosting the tournament.

The West Coast will soon get its own trial run.

As is tradition, the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament will go from Indianapolis in 2025 back up to Chicago in ’26.

The Midwest’s biggest city will host after two years away, with the United Center set to host for the 12th time. The United Center, which serves as home to the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, has a seated capacity of 20,917, making it the largest of the basketball arenas in the mix for the Big Ten.

Like the 2025 event, the 2026 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament will be held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Indy is in the heart of traditional Big Ten country, and the city’s layout is well-suited to hosting big sporting events and conventions, whether at Lucas Oil Stadium or Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The venue, which opened in 1999 and serves as the home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and WNBA’s Indiana Fever, boasts a capacity of 17,274 for basketball games.

In three years, the Big Ten will put the spotlight on its new Western flank, hosting its men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas.

With its myriad hotels and casinos on the Las Vegas Strip (which is technically just over city lines in Paradise, Nev.), there may not be a city more conducive to hosting a large-scale sporting event like this.

T-Mobile Arena, which will serve as the home of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament, is no stranger to March hoops. The Pac-12 Tournament was held at the venue from 2017 until ’24. It also serves as home to the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. The basketball capacity for the venue is listed at 18,000.

While Chicago and Indianapolis will likely remain in heavy rotation for the Big Ten, it would not surprise to see the league venture out west with some regularity.

With UCLA and USC joining the league, Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena and Intuit Dome could be in the mix for future tournaments.

If the league wants to make a move up to the Pacific Northwest, Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena makes sense as an option. The arena previously served as home to the Seattle SuperSonics, and currently has the Seattle Storm, Seattle Kraken and a college basketball team, Seattle University’s Redhawks, as tenants. The Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament and NCAA tournament have both been played at the venue.

Perhaps the most likely candidate to host its first Big Ten men’s basketball tournament is Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. It will serve as host to the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament in 2028.