Big Ten Basketball Tournament Announces Decision On Fans
With COVID-19 altering the entire March Madness landscape, the excitement of postseason college basketball just won’t quite be the same this year. That being said, one conference has already taken a significant step towards normalcy.
On Thursday morning, the Big Ten announced it will allow a limited 8,000 fans to attend games during this year’s conference tournament. Big Ten Conference Directors of Athletics worked closely with the Marion County Health Department to ensure the proper safety precautions are taken at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis from Mar. 10-14.
The limited tickets will be sold through the individual schools.
College basketball insider Brendan Quinn of The Athletic shared the full Big Ten statement on his Twitter.
Some news from the Big Ten office:
8,000 fans will be allowed in for B10 Tournament game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy next week.
Tickets will sold via the schools.
Decision made jointly with Marion Country Health Dept. pic.twitter.com/MimQ8BFO5q
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) March 4, 2021
With the way Big Ten basketball is going this year, those 8,000 tickets will be gone in a flash.
The top half of the conference is red-hot heading into the postseason. With four Big Ten contenders currently ranked in the top 10 (three in top five), the conference championship is essentially a toss up.
Over the past couple weeks, the conference has been stacked with marquee matchups that hold some heavy seeding implications.
Ranked at No. 2 in the nation, the Michigan Wolverines have slowly crawled their way into the elite tier of college basketball teams. But, the volatility of Big Ten basketball was on full display for them earlier this week.
On Tuesday, No. 4 Illinois took down Juwan Howard’s squad with a convincing 76-53 win. Even with the victory, the Fighting Illini remain one spot behind the Wolverines in conference standings.
The third place Iowa Hawkeyes have been solid all year and remain steady at No. 5 in the nation. In another recent battle between Big Ten behemoths, Iowa fell to Michigan just last week. The following game, Fran McCaffery’s squad took down fifth-place Ohio State.
Despite a lower national ranking, the No. 23 Purdue Boilermakers hold the fourth spot in conference rankings with a head-to-head win over the Buckeyes earlier in the season.
No. 25 Wisconsin also remains a fringe contender with sixth position in the Big Ten standings.
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