Nicole Auerbach

USA TODAY Sports

Madison Square Garden will host the Big Ten men's basketball tournament in 2018, another product of commissioner Jim Delany's focus on expanding the league's footprint east.

The Big East, locked into a long-term deal with the Garden, will also host its postseason tournament there that year as originally planned. The Big East championship game will remain the night before Selection Sunday.​

In order to get the Garden, the Big Ten agreed to move its tournament up a week, so it will finish a week prior to Selection Sunday. The basketball tournament's move was first reported by SI.com.

"The Big East is contracted there through the early '20s, and we wanted to get there ASAP," Delany told USA TODAY Sports by phone Saturday night. "We'd been trying to think about how to get to New York. ... We'll do (the tournament) a little early. I've talked to our coaches, and they're on board with it, excited about it."

Delany said the Big Ten will probably have to start conference play in December during the 2017-18 season, which is unusually early for the conference.

There will be a week between the Big Ten championship game and the NCAA Tournament's Selection Sunday, but Delany said league coaches aren't worried about the lag.

"We'll have a little time left to rest and recover," Delany said. "Some of them may play a game, but most of them want to rest and do some prep. Many of the (coaches) came from mid-major ranks (which have earlier postseason tournaments), so this is not new to that. They understood the value of being in New York, being in an iconic place. ... It's a one-year situation. We'll see how we do, see long-term, see how fans respond.

"But there's also a possibility of really doing well with television. You're not in the same window as the ACC or SEC or Big East. I'm hoping there will be more viewership and followership of this event. ... We'd like to play in the normal weekend, but at the same time, we thought this was a unique opportunity to get to the Garden, the mecca, and to make a really strong statement."

The Big Ten tournament will be held in Chicago in 2015, Indianapolis in 2016 and Washington, D.C., in 2017.

Delany also said that the Big Ten will establish an annual hockey/basketball doubleheader at the Garden, to be played in the first quarter of the calendar year from 2016-19.

Michigan and Penn State will compete in the first doubleheader on Jan. 30, 2016. The rest of the matchups have not yet been determined.

"It'll be fun for the teams and players and fans in New York City," Delany said. "We're trying to build a presence. We want to live there. ... We're excited we've been able to get this done."