Big Ten Bracketology: Indiana or Ohio State?

Lose, and enjoy the NIT. Win, and you play Michigan State. Oh, and you might make the NCAA Tournament, too.

The Indiana-Ohio State game on the 8-9 line of the Big Ten Tournament bracket just might be a play-in game for March Madness, if the bracketologists and pundits and tea leaf-readers are, in fact, correct. Lots to do, lots to read ahead of the BTT. Check out our other coverage across Off Tackle Empire, and let’s look at some bracket projections:

Bracketology

B1G Talking Points

• Michigan State has moved solidly into that 2-line in Bracket Matrix, while Michigan needs a good showing in the BTT, along with one of the SEC schools around it (namely Tennessee or LSU) getting knocked out of the SEC Tournament early.
• I’m surprised to see co-champions Purdue at the bottom of the three-line, and perhaps I’ve just not been paying enough attention. They’re pretty comfortably ahead of Kansas for the right to play probably Old Dominion or the Ivy winner, but we’ll see how conference tourneys weight.
• Same goes for wisconsin, at the bottom of the 4-line. The upside? Virginia Tech is the nearest club to ‘em, and I don’t envy the Hokies’ chances in the ACC Tournament.
• Maryland having to take on Ja Morant and the Murray State Racers would be delightful. Make it happen, tournament committee.
• What’s fun about that scenario? The Terps are having to play the sexiest of the 12-seeds because both Indiana and Ohio State could be shunted off to Dayton, if a few different projections are to be believed. Now, we mentioned above that the BTT can and probably should be a play-in game for those two clubs, but...who knows?
• If you have Iowa any better than a 9-seed, you’re an idiot. I would love to hear what Jerry Palm knows that we don’t.
• Because I don’t just want to play the fashionable “Let’s dunk on Iowa for being so shitty” game, I just want to note the underwhelmingness, embodied, that is Minnesota. I truly, truly hope they make the moronic decision to Tubby-Terminate Richard Pitino after a first-round loss to something shitty like Iowa State while their hockey team is drawing 2000 fans to Mariucci. It would be Peak Minnesota.
• Now that NYC Buckets has joined the dark side and is writing for SBNation, you can read his projections for the NIT there. (Spoiler: No one.)
• Rutgers for CBI.