WASHINGTON – A person familiar with the plans says the Big Ten Conference will announce Tuesday that its basketball tournament is going to be held at Washington's Verizon Center in 2017.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on Monday on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made.
The conference said Commissioner Jim Delaney would appear at a news conference at Verizon Center on Tuesday but did not say why.
The 2017 Big Ten tournament will be the 20th. The inaugural tournament was held in 1998 in Chicago.
It was in Indianapolis this year.
But the conference, which is mainly filled with Midwestern schools such as Michigan, Indiana and Ohio State, is expanding its membership — and, it hopes, its reach and popularity. Maryland and Rutgers join next season.
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