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Current standings (7th-10th)
7) UCLA, 12-7
8) Ohio State, 11-8
9) Iowa, 10-9
10) Indiana, 9-10
7-Seed
In order for Ohio State to get the 7-seed, two things would need to happen this weekend:
- UCLA loses to USC on Saturday, finishing with a 12-8 B1G record.
- Ohio State beats Indiana on Saturday, finishing with a 12-8 B1G record.
Because Ohio State won the only regular-season meeting between the two teams, the Buckeyes would earn the tiebreaker over the Bruins and get the 7-seed. UCLA would then claim the 8-seed.
As mentioned above, the 7-seed would get a double bye and would play their first game on Thursday, March 12, at 6:30 p.m. ET. With a win, the 7-seed would face the 2-seed on Friday, which could be Michigan State, Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue, or Wisconsin. More importantly, they would not have to face top-seeded Michigan until the championship game, hypothetically.
8-Seed
In order for Ohio State to get the 8-seed in the Big Ten Tournament,
two different scenarios could play out:
Scenario 1:
- UCLA beats USC on Saturday, finishing with a 13-7 B1G record.
- Ohio State beats Indiana on Saturday, finishing with a 12-8 B1G record.
Pretty straightforward - if UCLA wins and gets to 13 conference wins, they finish ahead of Ohio State. If Ohio State holds serve at home against Indiana, the Buckeyes will finish ahead of Iowa and are guaranteed the 8-seed.
Scenario 2:
- Ohio State loses to Indiana on Saturday, finishing with an 11-9 B1G record.
- Iowa loses to Nebraska on Sunday, finishing with a 10-10 B1G record.
In this scenario, Ohio State’s hypothetical loss on Saturday would leave them vulnerable to dropping to the 9-seed, but if Iowa also loses, they would finish above the Hawkeyes. UCLA’s game would become irrelevant in this scenario.
As mentioned above, the 8-seed would get a double bye and would play their first game on Thursday, March 12, at 12 noon ET. With a win, the 8-seed would advance to playing top-seeded Michigan in the quarterfinals on Friday at 12 noon ET.
9-Seed
In order for Ohio State to get the 9-seed, two things would have to happen this weekend:
- Ohio State loses to Indiana on Saturday, finishing with an 11-9 B1G record.
- Iowa beats Nebraska on Sunday, finishing with an 11-9 B1G record.
In this scenario, UCLA’s game against USC is no longer relevant because once Ohio State loses, it cannot catch the Bruins and can only be impacted by Iowa. If the Hawkeyes beat Nebraska, they would tie Ohio State at 11-9 and, because they beat the Buckeyes in the regular season, would own the tiebreaker and get the higher seed.
If this happened, Ohio State would get a “single-bye” and play on Wednesday at 12 noon ET against the winner of the 16-seed and 17-seed. If they won that game, they would advance to play 8-seed Iowa on Thursday at 12 noon ET. If they were to win that, they would advance to face top-seeded Michigan on Friday, and would be Ohio State’s third game in three days.