Today, the Big Ten Conference announced that Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, home of the Colts, has been chosen as the proposed site for the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game, to be played in December of 2011.
The conference office now begins a 30-day period to negotiate a one-year agreement with Indiana Sports Corp and Lucas Oil Stadium to host the game. Once the 2011 agreement is in place, the conference office will utilize the next year to determine location of the Big Ten Football Championship Game in 2012 and beyond.
By Paul M. Banks
“We are excited to work with Indiana Sports Corp and Lucas Oil Stadium to finalize an agreement to hold the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game in the city of Indianapolis,” said Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany.
“We felt at this time it was important to identify a site for the first championship game and then spend more time with other cities and venues with respect to both our basketball tournaments and the football championship games in the future. The city of Indianapolis has been an outstanding host for our basketball tournaments, and we look forward to holding our first Big Ten Football Championship Game in Lucas Oil Stadium.”
Ohio State Director of Athletics Gene Smith also weighed in on this:
“We’re excited about the partnership with Indianapolis, because the city and its organizations have consistently demonstrated the ability to host these types of premier events. I’m certain Indy will do a great job hosting the Big Ten football championship.”
As did the sweater vest, OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel:
“Indianapolis is the capital city of college athletics. It will be an honor to aspire to compete in Lucas Oil Stadium.”
Here’s the statement from the championship game “home team” AD, Purdue Boilermakers’ coach Danny Hope:
โHaving the Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium is very exciting for Purdue. Being so close to home for the first-ever conference title game is a great thing for our team, Boilermaker Nation and really for all of football in the state of Indiana.โ
Written by Paul M. Banks, President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru
