By Sean McDevitt
FightingIllini.com

Illinois Basketball is set to continue its long tradition of playing a home game at the United Center in Chicago.  However, this upcoming season will see the Fighting Illini facing a Big Ten opponent.

The new development, announced on Wednesday by Director of Athletics Josh Whitman, allows the program to make the United Center game more attractive to fans and add excitement. Illinois has not faced a Big Ten opponent during the regular season at the United Center since Northwestern in 2003.

The newly expanded 20-game Big Ten schedule allowed the unique set up. The Big Ten is still finalizing the league's schedule for the upcoming season with the final schedule likely available in late summer.

"That game had become a challenge for us from a scheduling standpoint," said Whitman. "It was difficult to get a quality opponent, especially given the return obligations."

The game will be played in December as part of the early Big Ten schedule.

Whitman intends on keeping the United Center game on the schedule and believes having a presence in Chicago helps with recruiting and with the tremendous fan base in the Windy City.

"We'll have a great, traditional rival in the building, and hopefully people will come out in nice numbers," said Whitman. "We'll give it a shot this year and see how it works and then make some decisions about going forward."

The Fighting Illini have had much success playing at the home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls, going 37-15 at the United Center since it opened in 1994, including a 17-7 record against Big Ten teams and two Big Ten Tournament titles (2003 and '05).

The Big Ten has announced Illinois' 2018-19 home conference opponents, so the United Center game would come from this group of teams: Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Michigan State or Indiana, though Whitman was fairly certain the UC opponent would not be Northwestern.