The first Big Ten football championship game will be in a dome.

The conference announced Thursday it awarded the game to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the home of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. The game will be played in December 2011.

"We felt at this time it was important to identify a site for the first championship game and then spend more time with other cities and venues with respect to both our basketball tournaments and the football championship games in the future," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement Thursday. "The city of Indianapolis has been an outstanding host for our basketball tournaments, and we look forward to holding our first Big Ten football championship game in Lucas Oil Stadium."

The conference and Indiana Sports Corp along with Lucas Oil Stadium will begin a 30-day period to negotiate the contract for the game.

It will be a one-year deal as the conference is looking to decide future hosts for the men's and women's basketball tournaments as well as the football title game.

All three are in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis, for the time being, beat out Ford Field in Detroit, the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Soldier Field in Chicago, Lambeau Field in Green Bay and Browns Stadium in Cleveland.

"I just think that the selection, the philosophy, the economics around a championship venue may require more focus, more focused energy than we have right at this moment," Delany said at Big Ten media days this week about a long-term site choice. "So rather than try to do something in a short time frame without adequate time to study, I think it might make some sense to defer that."

AnnArbor.com reporter Dave Birkett contributed to this report

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.