There are some changes ahead for Big Ten college basketball fans.
The Big Ten and Big East Conferences have announced the creation of the Gavitt Tipoff Games. The event will be an annual early-season series of eight men’s basketball games played between members of the two conferences and named for Dave Gavitt, founder of the Big East.
The series will start for the 2015-2016 season and will be played on four consecutive days during the first full week of the college basketball season.
Get used to college basketball season starting with Big Ten/Big East clash: http://t.co/LPH4R8WttM pic.twitter.com/tdx7A1dTi8
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) May 5, 2014
“We are excited to honor Dave Gavitt and his contributions to the sport of basketball through the establishment of the Gavitt Tipoff Games,” said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany. “Dave was a friend and a mentor to me and often mentioned that college basketball should do a better job of tipping off the season, similar to opening day in baseball.”
The Associated Press reports Gavitt coached Providence to the NCAA tournament five times, including the Final Four in 1973. He died in 2011 at 73. Gavitt was also a key player in the formation of the Big East and was the conference’s first commissioner.
Two games will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the first full week of the college basketball season.
Television coverage of the series will be determined by the conference of the home team. Big Ten home games will air on BTN or ESPN, while Big East homes games will be televised on FOX Sports 1.
The second announcement is one that could be more interesting.
Big Ten will be making an announcement in D.C. tomorrow at Noon.
— Seth Kaplan đź“ş (@Seth_Kaplan) May 5, 2014
Much of the rumor on Twitter is that the conference will announce its moving the post season basketball tournament to Washington D.C.
