BTPowerhouse's 1/30 Big Ten Tournament Bracketology

Another week of Big Ten action and more great games from top to bottom.  Last weekend had some great games featuring teams like Michigan, MSU, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.  The week featured showdowns between Indiana and Purdue and Maryland and Ohio State.  Now, with another week of action, we will look at the current seeding of this year's Big Ten Tournament.

The concept is pretty simple. Each week, BTP will be taking a look at how the Big Ten Tournament projects as of that morning. For instance, today's bracket will be set as of Friday, January 30, 2015 morning. I have taken the liberty of looking at the Big Ten records and using the Big Ten tiebreaker scenarios to see where teams will land. Things will certainly move, but it is still interesting to see as of this moment. Let's take a look.

2015 B1G Tournament Bracket (1/30):

Thoughts

Let me start with the obvious.  This is a mess.  There were not only 3 ties in the conference standings, but they involved a total of 8(!!!) teams.  Essentially, there is still going to be a ton of movement in these standings in the coming weeks.  It's one of the major reasons why you see last week's #1 seed Indiana all the way down at #7 this week.  Your record obviously matters, but the tiebreakers are huge right now.

Starting at the top, this is the first week that Wisconsin is starting to assert itself with a 1 game divide.  Outside of the Badgers, the Buckeyes made a major stake to the #2 spot.  Not only did they just beat Maryland last night, but they beat Michigan earlier this season and are coming off a win over Indiana that gave them a 1-1 record against the Hoosiers this season.  You actually have to go down to the #8 seed to find a team with a winning record against Ohio State this season.  With Purdue and Rutgers ahead, OSU looks strong to stay at #2 for the time being.

The second segment that's really interesting is the battle between Indiana, Michigan State, and Purdue right now.  Things will iron themselves out obviously, but that 2nd tier of the Big Ten is going to be a battle, especially with Michigan having a tough upcoming schedule.  The battle for that #4 seed is going to be very tight and it looks like that almost all the #5 through #8 seeds should be in the race.

At the bottom, it's largely been the same 4 teams rotating and it moves based on who wins most recently.  There shouldn't be too much movement there this week, but if Illinois or Nebraska stumbles, perhaps a team like Penn State could jump into a bye.