Big Ten, Big East to play on-campus season tipoff events beginning in 2015-16

Tthe Big Ten and Big East conferences will begin annual on-campus basketball season tipoff events starting during the 2015-16 season. The event, coined the "Gavitt Games", will honor the late Hall of Famer Dave Gavitt, a longtime head coach at Providence.

The Big East had been speaking publicly about engaging in talks of this variety for some time now, and entering into a formalized agreement with the Big Ten, which was announced today in a joint press conference at Madison Square Garden at 12:30 p.m. ET, makes a lot of sense for both parties.

The kind of potential matchups we could see out of the arrangement include Georgetown-Maryland, Indiana or Purdue against Butler, amongst others. Perhaps this could also finally encourage Ohio State and Xavier to renew acquaintances in the regular season.

Featuring eight teams from each conference, the matchups, which are expected to heavily factor in perceived strength of each side, will be announced every spring with B1G teams showcased at least four times every eight years.

In a separate yet to be confirmed report, rumors are circulating that the Big Ten will explore relocating their annual postseason conference basketball tournament to the Washington D.C. area, for at least one season. Though hardly the relatively geographic center location that Indianapolis is nor having the familiarity of Chicago, Washington D.C. represents one of the single largest conglomerations of Big Ten alumni anywhere in the country.

Given some of the past interest in recent B1G tourneys, mixing it up with the likes of DC or New York City, where the alumni may be more inclined to purchase tickets due to the novelty, might not be the worst idea in the world. We'll have more as it's made available on that evolving story.