Breaking Down The Big Ten Baseball Title Race

Let’s go Purdue!

After Minnesota steamrolled Rutgers on Tuesday afternoon, Nebraska officially fell to second place in the Big Ten on percentage points.

Nebraska gets the leagues worst team in Penn State, while Minnesota has to play a desperate Purdue team trying to stay ahead of Michigan State for the eighth spot in the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan, a half game behind gets a visit from Michigan State who is just a half game behind Nebraska and Minnesota.

The situation for Nebraska is as follows. The highest Nebraska can finish is first. Nebraska as of now can finish as low as sixth. Nebraska would want to avoid finishing second as they play the early morning game on next Wednesday at the Big Ten Tournament.

One win for Nebraska, regardless of whatever happens in the league would eliminate sixth place from the conversation. Indiana and Nebraska could tie with identical 15-8-1 records if Nebraska lost two of three. Nebraska would have the tiebreaker with Indiana in that case due to the Huskers series win during the opening weekend of Big Ten play.

Two wins would make the Huskers at worst case the three seed. Nebraska would be 16-8-1 and would eliminate both the possibility of either Maryland or Iowa finishing above them. The third seed would play at 10:00 in the morning on Wednesday, not an ideal choice for the Huskers.

A sweep for the Huskers would mean they could not be jumped by the Michigan Wolverines and would either be the second seed or Big Ten champions. Based on season projections Warrennolan.com has the following predictions for this weekend.

This situation is believable, with both MSU and Purdue somewhat likely to at least pick up one game each this weekend. Nebraska will strongly be rooting for Purdue, a team without a true ace that has been scuffling to make the tournament.

If these standings held true, then Nebraska would be in a bracket with Indiana, Maryland, and Purdue. Not to call it an easy bracket, but a win against Purdue and then a prime time game against either Indiana or Maryland on Thursday night could boost the Huskers possibilities as hosting as a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

On the opposite side would be Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa, and Minnesota. Minnesota and Michigan could do some damage to each other while neither Iowa or Northwestern should be taken lightly.

While the above scenario is plausible, it will be updated daily as upsets are sure to happen. If I had to take a stab at the final standings, I would trade Minnesota and Nebraska and move Michigan State into the eighth spot, knocking out Purdue. Minnesota and Michigan State would be a compelling game. In this case, Nebraska falls to the 2 seed, since Michigan State would have to defeat Michigan.