A New Partnership Begins: Big 10 and Madison Square Garden

The east coast seems to be summoning the Big 10 Conference.

In recent years Maryland and Rutgers were added to the conference as the thirteenth and fourteenth schools, sitting on a stack of Midwestern Universities. The conference added John Hopkins University lacrosse, and a lacrosse championship. This sport is established in the East but rising in the West. The near future holds conference football teams playing in the Pin Stripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. An additional office was built in NYC to compliment conference HQ in Chicago, IL. The 2017 B1G basketball tournament is to be held at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. in 2017, and none other than Madison Square Garden in 2018.

“We said we want to live here, and just not visit. Over the last 18 months we have done a lot. Having a conference men’s tournament championship in 2018, and having a hockey basketball double header here starting in 2016 for a four-year period represents by action what our words were. We don’t want to visit, we want to live here,” announced B1G commissioner Jim Delany during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at MSG.

“Today we are really, really thrilled to collaborate with the Big Ten conference on this unique college basketball and hockey partnership. The addition of the Big Ten conference tournament in 2018 will certainly add to the long list of our historic events, and we look forward to several top notch days of college basketball,” mentioned Joel Fisher, Executive VP, Sports and Arena Transformation, MSG.

College hockey doesn’t have the 80 year history at the arena, but in 2007 it was brought back regularly to Madison Square Garden. The first matchup was the Red Hot Hockey Contest between Cornell and Boston University, which virtually sold out for all four match ups. Two years ago Michigan played Cornell; that sold out. Just two weeks ago Penn State took on Cornell; and that essentially sold out.

“We’re looking forward to bringing some of the top teams in the country showcasing Big Ten hockey to all the fans in this area,” Fisher said.

The B1G conference has won 23 NCAA titles in hockey, Michigan boasting nine titles, which leads the NCAA.

Big Ten college hockey and college basketball double-header at MSG, stayed tuned for these historic events beginning 2016.