INDIANAPOLIS -- Home to the Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis Colts and the NCAA Hall of Champions, Indianapolis, Ind., has also, for nine of the past 10 years, been home to the Big Ten women's basketball championship tournament. But with the contract with Indianapolis and Conseco Fieldhouse due to expire after the 2005 Big Ten Tournament, that could soon change.

"We haven't decided on whether to move it or not," Big Ten assistant commissioner and tournament director Andrea Williams said. "We have created an ad hoc committee with Big Ten administrators, Big Ten coaches and a conference committee person...to look at venues, cities, attendance. Essentially we're taking the opportunity to really look at this entire tournament, look at other conferences that are comparable to the Big Ten and see what we need to do to grow."

Currently, the format of the tournament is four rounds, held Thursday through Monday night. Saturday is designated as a day off between the quarterfinals and the semi-finals to allow for the four classes of Indiana high school girls' basketball to play their state championship games.

According to Williams, every aspect of the tournament is up for consideration and change, including the day off. Currently, no one site or format is favored, and keeping it as it is now in Indianapolis remains an option.

"We're starting from scratch," Williams said. "That means looking at the dates. That means looking at the format. That means looking at the city. It means looking at the venue. Would I sit here and say we'd go to Los Angeles? Probably not. But there's different areas, different cities in the Midwest ... that we're looking at."

Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland hopes that the Big Ten will move the site and change the format, citing the day off as the major part of her dislike of the current tournament format and setting.

"We're talking about moving the tournament and the conference office needs to get to work to move it," Portland said. "We need to play this as a tournament, which would be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. The day off hurts us; it hurts the fans; it hurts the other teams who would like to stay and see what is going on."

Ohio State women's basketball coach Jim Foster shared Portland's dislike of the day off.

"I am not a fan of the day off," Foster said. "The fact that we have to take a day off for the high school championship dilutes the product, in my opinion."

Aside from the day off, another major reason for discontent is the supposed advantage conferred on Indiana and Purdue, whose fan bases are a short drive from Indianapolis. Though Purdue women's basketball coach Kristy Curry maintained that Conseco Fieldhouse in no way felt like home, the Purdue fans were definitely present in the greatest numbers by far.

Curry supported Indianapolis as the tournament site for reasons she said were completely independent of its proximity to the Purdue campus.

"You have a city like Indianapolis, you have the restaurants, you have the fan-friendly mall, all the teams are downtown, you've got a facility like Conseco -- tell me a better place to play," Curry said. "I think that the city of Indianapolis has embraced us. I just think it's a travesty when people try to find a better place to host this tournament. Yes, we love being in Indiana, but tell me a better state for basketball."

Other potential sites that have been mentioned in passing are Chicago; Grand Rapids, Mich., where the 2001 tournament was held; and Minneapolis. Foster supports a rotating site, which he says would even out the fan advantage and would also ensure that each tournament site, because it would have to compete to host, would make the event special for its participants.

"I think you just go out and you get a community that wants to buy you lock, stock and barrel," Foster said. "I've had the experience where there were a lot of different communities and each one tried to outdo the other. The last time I looked, what makes America a great country is competition. The facility [in Indianapolis] is terrific, but I'd like us to move."