B1G Conference Tournament Seeding
We all know that a win over Penn State and an Ohio win over Michigan State will result in a three-way tie for the regular season. In this situation, all 3 teams are 1-1 against each other so head-to-head won't solve the tiebraker. What other factors will detemine the seeding?
We really could use the 1 or 2 seed. A quick look at the B1G standings reveals the 5 and 6 teams are Indiana and Purdue (both teams we split with), who play Sunday in Bloomington to determine the order. It would obviously be preferable to have an easier first game against the likes of Iowa, Northwestern, Illinois, or Minnesota.
I believe the tie-breaker in a 3 way tie at the top of the standings is the winning % against the next best common opponent. In this case, it would be Wisconsin. OSU went 1-1 against Wisconsin so they would be the 3 seed. We were 1-0 against the Badgers but MSU was 2-0 so we would be a 2 seed.
Good news, although unfortunately that still means we'll probably have to beat Ohio again in the semifinals. Seems like a pretty random tiebreaker, especially considering we aren't given a chance by nature of only playing Wisconsin once. Thanks for the info.
2 wins is great than 1 even though the % is the same. I believe that's how the conference has always done it.
That's exactly it. I know it's been posted on here before, but here's the link to the B1G's official tiebreaker procedure.
That link is for 2008 tie breaking procedures, the new rule says that 2-0 is the same as 1-0.
Michigan State is still locked into the 1 seed though. Michigan and Ohio State are locked into 2/3 or 3/2. Wisconsin is locked into the 4.
Purdue and Indiana are playing for 5/6. Iowa and Northwestern are playing for 7/8.
In your scenario, both MSU and Michigan have a winning percentage of 100%. Does it matter how many times they played (won)? Or given the fact that they are still tied after winning percentage, would it go further from there?
EDIT: Apparently I'm late to the party on this one...
The next tiebreaker in a 3-way tie for first would be the winning percentage against the #4 team(s), followed by #5, etc. No matter how you arrange it, Michigan State gets the #1 seed, Michigan #2 and Ohio State #3, assuming Michigan wins.
I'm not too worried. Keep in mind that whomever we play will have tired legs from the previous day while we'll be well-rested.
I'd rather see Iowa b/c it would be a chance to beat the the only Big Ten team Michigan didn't beat this year (didn't play them in AA, of course) and b/c (I don't mind admitting) I have no interest in seeing Michigan have to prepare for/deal with NW again.
NW just seems to give Michigan trouble every time, and it seems to require an unusual amount of preparation to get ready for them.
A great man once said, "Playing against Northwestern is the basketball equivalent of getting a root canal"
Iowa has probably the greatest home/road split in performance in the league. They've been very tough at Carver-Hawkeye and terrible on the road. I don't mind playing them.
Iowa beat Wisconsin at Wisconsin. No easy feat.
That flies in the face of my argument - although that was when Wisconsin was in that bad slump in January.
That was early in the season when Wisconsin went through some struggles offensively. It is quite an accomplishment that they won at Kohl Center, but I still think that Iowa away from Carver-Hawkeye is a very average team.
jmblue said the same thing I have been saying for a while, and that is that Iowa feeds off their home crowd more than any other B1G team. Indy ain't Iowa City.
I agree, I want to beat Iowa so there's a split. we've seen enough NW already. 2 OTS in two games...insane.
I figure we'll have to face either MSU or OSU in the sem-finals no matter what seed we get (assuming we win on Friday in round 2), so I am not too concerned about what seed we would get in an event of a tie-breaker. I would really like a share of the conference regular season title, though, to get that monkey off our backs.
If we win and Northwestern beats Iowa, we could see Northwestern in the quarterfinals.
I would be wary of a bubble team whom we have devestated with late comebacks TWICE this season.
It is hard to root against NW . . . I'd like to see them make it to the NCAA tournament, and this might be their best chance. And with their style of play, they could go pretty far against teams that don't know how to deal with them.
We will be either a 2 or 3 seed at this point. In either case, that means we will get a team that we should beat in the second round, then, most likely, OSU.
There is a big difference in 1st round matchups between the 2 and 3 seed. Assuming higher seed wins in 1st round of BTT, 2 seed gets winner of this weekend's Iowa/NW matchup where winner gets 7 seed. The 3 seed gets loser of IU/Purdue matchup. This of course assumes no upsets in Thursday 1st round BTT games. HUGE difference in playing IU/Purdue vs. playing Iowa/NU
Fun Big Ten Tourney facts: In the 14 year history, the following matchups have never occurred:
Illinois/Iowa
Purdue/Wisconsin
Indiana/Michigan
MSU/Michigan
I'm sure everyone knows about MSU/Michigan never meeting. However, there has only been 1 year (2001, UM 10 seed, MSU 2) where they could have even met before the semifinals. Including this year where they can't meet until the finals, 11 of the 15 years of the BTT, the only way MSU/Michigan could have met was in the finals. That is crazy to me.
- MSU
- Michigan or OSU
- Michigan or OSU
- Wisconsin
- Indiana or Purdue
- Indiana or Purdue
- Iowa or Northwestern
- Iowa or Illinois or Northwestern
- Illinois or Northwestern
- Minnesota or Nebraska
- Minnesota or Nebraska
- PSU
Tiebreaking scenarios:
2/3: Michigan if win OR OSU loss, OSU if win AND Michigan loss
5/6: winner of Purdue at Indiana
7: winner of Northwestern at Iowa
8: Iowa if loss, Illinois if win AND Northwestern loss, Northwestern if loss AND Illinois loss
9: Illinois if loss, Northwestern if loss AND illinois win
10/11: winner of Nebraska at Minnesota
MSU is #1 seed
If Michigan wins, they're #2 seed and osu is #3. If the unthinkable happens, then if osu wins, osu would get #2 and Michigan the #3. If both Michigan and osu lose, Michigan is #2 and osu is #3.
Wisconsin is #4 (so the top 4 teams in the two halves of the brackets are set)
Winner of Indiana-Purdue is #5; loser is #6.
If Northwestern wins over Iowa, they're #7, Illinois is #9, and Iowa is #8.
If NU loses to Iowa and if Illinois wins, NU is #9, Illinois is #8, and Iowa is #7.
If NU and Illinois both lose, NU is #8, Illinois is #9, and Iowa is #7.
If Minnesota beats Nebraska, Minnesota is #10, Penn State is #11, and Nebraska is #12 [edit] unless Penn State loses and Indiana wins, then Nebraska is #11 and Penn State is #12.
If Nebraska beats Minnesota, Penn State is #12 but Penn State's result against Michigan determines others' seeding: If Penn State wins, Minnesota is #10 and Nebraska is #11 (due to 3 way tie for 10th place and head to head records); if Michigan wins; Nebraska is #10 and Minnesota is #11.
First round is 8 vs. 9, 5 vs. 12, 7 vs. 10, and 6 vs. 11 - none of these games will be rematches from the final weekend of the regular season.
As a #2 or #3 seed, Michigan will be playing the 6:30 game (7/10 winner) or the one that follows (6/11 winner) on Friday.
so who do we want most at the 4,5,6 if it comes down to that?