BTT Bracket Possibilities
It's really wild to me that with one game to go, Michigan can be anywhere from the 2 to the 8 in the Big Ten Tournament. I'm sure there are a more iterations for each seed, but below is a listing of how Michigan can land on several different seed lines.
- 2 seed
- Michigan over Indiana
- Nebraska over Iowa
- Penn State over Maryland
- Purdue over Illinois
- I don't think the other three games matter
- 3 seed
- Michigan over Indiana
- Penn State over Maryland
- Nebraska over Iowa OR Purdue over Illinois, but not both
- I don't think the other three games matter
- 4 seed
- Michigan over Indiana
- Iowa over Nebraska
- PSU over Maryland
- Illinois over Purdue
- I don't think the other games matter
- 5 seed
- Michigan over Indiana
- Iowa over Nebraska
- Maryland over PSU
- Illinois over Purdue
- Rutgers over NW
- 6 seed
- Indiana over Michigan
- Iowa over Nebraska
- Maryland over Penn State
- Purdue over Illinois
- Rutgers over Northwestern
- This is the chalk outcome
- 7 seed
- Indiana over Michigan
- OSU over MSU
- Iowa over Nebraska
- Maryland over PSU
- Purdue over Illinois
- NW over Rutgers
- 8 seed
- Indiana over Michigan
- MSU over OSU
- Iowa over Nebraska
- Maryland over PSU
- Purdue over Illinois
- NW over Rutgers
Win the game.
Sure is a lot of parody in this league this year.
Parity, too, but mostly parody.
If Michigan wins at Indiana, a good chance it'll be either 3 Michigan against 6 Rutgers (if all other home games win, with WI-MN not factoring in either way) or 4 Michigan against 5 Michigan State (if MD wins at Penn State). I'd like either of those matchups, but particularly freefalling Rutgers, as their recent MN loss combined with our potential 2-0 H2H if we beat them again would have to give the committee serious pause to put them in over us, with their 6 Q2/Q3 losses > our 2 (5 vs 3 Q1 wins, yes)...
At this point, with anywhere between 7-10 B1G teams getting in, it's all about minimizing WI/PSU/RU in conjunction with maximizing MI wins.
TL;DR Just beat Indiana.
You play the games in front of you but to me, the worst nightmare would be, losing at IU and falling into that damn 8/9 game like we seem to every year. Honestly, losing to IU but needing to beat the PSU/Minnesota winner & Maryland wouldn't be too shabby. What it comes down to for me:
Teams I don't mind playing:
- Rutgers
- Northwestern
- Maryland
- Ohio State
50/50 Teams:
- MSU
- Penn State
- Wisconsin
- Nebraska
Teams I want to avoid (for various reasons):
- Minnesota (can only hurt our resume)
- IU (just don't think this is a good match-up for us)
- Illinois (lots of home fans in Chicago and a horrible matchup for us)
- Iowa (I'm just not convinced we can keep up with them offensively)
- Purdue (Don't mind facing them, as long as it's not our 'must have' game)
I would add PSU to the teams I don't want to play. Seems like a bad matchup and they will be playing for their lives.
Give me Minnesota. Get another win or it is the last time anyone has to say "welp NIT it is" at this point any win is huge to make the numbers look better.
Going forward if we foresee a young, not close to ready, roster I would be ok with a tomato can OOC schedule. Get those 20 wins and be happy with a lower seed in the tourney.
Like 2 losses in football, under 17/18 wins is your hardline to not make the playoff.
If we manage to win on Sunday the 5 seed might not actually be the worst outcome. Allows us to bank an extra win for overall record purposes and it’s not like the 4 seed is some Goliath we can’t beat
Been thinking the same. I don't know that we want to get a double bye in our current situation.
If I was going to play any of these as a parlay it would probably be the last one, which is unfortunate. I might switch PSU and Maryland if actually betting it.
Absolute ideal scenario in my opinion is the one where we end up a 3 seed. That would mean a win over IU, and a Friday matchup with a floundering Rutgers team.
If we were to lose on Sunday, I’d prefer the 6 seed. We’d likely be looking at Penn State and then Maryland. Penn State does scare me after getting trounced by them, but I think that path does more for our resume than the 5 seed, where we would need to beat Nebraska and Michigan State in all likelihood. We could also avoid Purdue as long as possible being in the bottom of the bracket. Selfishly I want the night game on Friday as well so it doesn’t conflict with my work schedule.
So basically Michigan is going to end up playing Staee again. No thanks.
AT this point CBS's bracketology as one of the last 4 in, ESPN has them as one of the last four out. A win over Indiana should put them on the right side of the bubble, but of course still on the bubble. In that case, looks like a 3 or a 4 is more likely.
There is a scenario where 6 teams can run the table and we have no shot. Those 6 teams can also all lose every game from here on out while we get 2-3 more victories. Id still like to see that rooting guide every day. Losing to Illinois only changed the location of where we need to get our next win.