The Big Ten Conference will split its first four hockey tournaments between Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn., and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Hockey becomes an official Big Ten sport in the 2013-14 season. Its tournaments will be played in Saint Paul in 2014 and 2016 and in Detroit in 2015 and 2017, the conference announced today.

All six teams -- Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin -- will qualify for the single-elimination post-season tournament, which will determine the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Quarterfinals between the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds and the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds will be played on a Thursday. The top two seeds will open tournament play in Friday semifinals. The championship game will be held on Saturday.

Once Big Ten play begins, each team's regular season will include a 20-game conference schedule, with each team playing the other five schools four times.