As expected, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will play host to the first ever Big Ten title game in December of 2011. As soon as Nebraska joined the conference and it was decided that a conference title game would begin being played in 2011, Lucas Oil Stadium became the favorite to play host to this event. They already host the Big Ten basketball tournaments, and it was a choice that made sense.
↵While Lucas Oil Stadium will be the host for the 2011 title game, decisions about the 2012 game and future ones will not be made until a later date. As Jim Delany said earlier this week, the conference will take the time to fully study all options for the site of future games, looking at the likes of Ford Field in Detroit and Soldier Field in Chicago. The studies will have to examine a variety of things, including each city's ability to host the game and what playing the game outdoors would mean revenue-wise.
↵Going forward, my personal hope is that Ford Field will get to play host every so often. I don't think there's any doubt that Indy will be involved in hosting the Big Ten title game one way or another, but I would prefer a rotation rather than a permanent site. Either way, Indy's not a bad choice by any means, as Lucas Oil Stadium is nice and Big Ten fans are already familiar with the city because of the basketball tournaments held at Conseco Fieldhouse each March.