As the sporting world continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Ten has closed off the Big Ten Tournament to spectators, beginning with Thursday's games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Minnesota and Northwestern and Indiana and Nebraska played on Day 1 of the event Wednesday, shortly after the NCAA announced it would close off its men's and women's NCAA Tournament events to all but essential personnel and select family.
The Big Ten had been in constant communication with local healthy officials and "totally deferential" to their judgment, per a BTN report, but as of Wednesday evening, no changes had been recommended, though subject to change.
That changed soon thereafter, as the Big Ten issued its announcement that the remainder of the tournament would be limited to teams, immediate family, essential game-operations personnel, television partners and credentialed media.
Purdue and Ohio State play at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Several Big Ten schools have implemented policies on their campuses to safeguard their communities against the spread of coronavirus, labeled on Wednesday by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic. One such measure at Purdue has been to limit gatherings of 50 or more people.
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