Big Ten regular season play officially wrapped up on Sunday evening with Wisconsin's trip to Purdue. With the Boilermakers pulling off the win at home, the Big Ten standings are finalized and the field has been set for the 2016 Big Ten Tournament in the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Though many of the seeds were locked up earlier in the week, there were some significant changes over the last few days and several key tiebreakers that sorted out the field. As a result, there are some interesting matchups that should not only impact the conference, but potential NCAA, NIT, and CBI bids.
Here is the 2016 Big Ten Tournament bracket.
2016 B1G Tournament Bracket:
Notes
The key thing to watch for Big Ten fans in Chicago will be the 8 teams with the potential to make the NCAA Tournament as at-large teams. These will be Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Most speculate that Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Purdue, and Wisconsin have locked up their NCAA bids, but Michigan and Ohio State still have work to do.
Outside of the potential NCAA bids, there are a few other interesting storylines to follow. The first will be whether there are any upsets on the first day of the tournament. None of the bottom four teams have been particularly impressive this season, but all have had at least one or two noteworthy wins.
Along with that, watching the breakdown of the "lower" half of the bracket will be particularly interesting. Michigan State will be the favorite in Indy, Maryland was the conference's preseason favorite, and Wisconsin has been one of the top teams in the country the last few weeks. As such, the battles should be fierce in that side of the bracket.
Regardless, it should be a great weekend of play in Indianapolis that should determine whether Michigan State can move up to a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and whether the Big Ten can get a nation's best seven or eight teams into the Big Dance.
BTP will have more B1G Tournament updates as the week continues so stay tuned.