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Big Ten Bracketology: You can tell it’s too soon, and here’s why.

Assessing the odds for Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, and other Big Ten teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

By MNWildcat
Northwestern NCAA Tournament Selection Watch Party “n”n”n

Yes, it’s January 2. I get that.

The HIGH STAKES WORLD of bracketology blogging, though, waits for no man. And with the Big Ten re-entering conference play this afternoon—previews and an open thread coming in a couple hours—it can’t hurt to get an idea of where the conference’s contenders stand.

If you’re already outraged or wondering why Northwestern appears in the article dek, though, might I suggest you check out our Power Poll and reacquaint yourself with just how good and/or bad some of these teams are?

In the meantime, here’s where things stand:

B1G Bracketology

B1G Thoughts

  • Both Purdue and Michigan State look about right for now—the Boilers pass the eye test for a #1 seed, and the Spartans are part of a wide-open second-tier of high seed options, with no blow-you-away wins but nothing approaching a bad loss, either.
  • I have no thoughts on Ohio State as a three-seed but it’s always great to see our old Penn State friend Ed DeChellis.
  • Illinois as a 6-seed with that resume tells me that a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament cranks them up to a 3-seed at worst—they’re already approaching Michigan State in most of the metrics.
  • I’m just out of things to say except that I hope wisconsin loses every game it plays.
  • I’ll cop to not seeing the Iowa hype—feels like a one-point win over a mediocre Virginia team and a couple close conference losses are doing a LOT of heavy lifting for a Hawkeyes squad that got blown the fuck out by Iowa State. Maybe one really good player in Keegan Murray gets Iowa the superstar treatment from the Committee, though.
  • If there were one team from the remaining four Tourney-adjacent teams—Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, and Northwestern—I’d take to make and miss the tournament, uh...

Poll

Which of those four is MOST likely to make the NCAA Tournament?

This poll is closed

  • 44%
    Michigan
    (108 votes)
  • 23%
    Minnesota
    (56 votes)
  • 21%
    Indiana
    (52 votes)
  • 10%
    Northwestern
    (26 votes)
242 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Which is LEAST likely?

This poll is closed

  • 11%
    Michigan
    (27 votes)
  • 18%
    Minnesota
    (45 votes)
  • 11%
    Indiana
    (29 votes)
  • 58%
    Northwestern
    (142 votes)
243 votes total Vote Now

I’ll let you vote on that.

But man, Nebraska at 220 NET is gonna hurt some Big Ten team when the Huskers finally claim their first conference win, and it’s gonna suck when that team is Northwestern.