BTPowerhouse's 2/19 Big Ten Tournament Bracketology: Indiana Hoosiers Lead The Way

This was undoubtedly the most surprising week of conference play to date. To start things off, Iowa went on the road and dropped a game to Penn State and then Maryland followed it off with an upset loss to Minnesota. Of course, even on top of those two games, there were some other wild games. Unsurprisingly, it's created some chaos across the conference.

With that, let's take a look at the Big Ten Tournament bracket.

The concept of the bracket is pretty simple. Each time, BTP will breakdown how the Big Ten Tournament projects as of that moment. For instance, today's bracket will be set as of the night of Friday, February 19, 2016. 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.

2016 Big Ten Tournament Bracket (2/19):

Thoughts:

Well, things were spaced out there in the Big Ten ... for a bit. As of Friday, the conference standings are a complete mess. A total of eight teams are tied with at least one other team in the standings and a total of 12 teams have the same number of losses as at least one other team.

Needless to say, any win or loss could dramatically reshape things.

At the top of the standings, the Indiana Hoosiers moved into the No. 1 seed thanks to Iowa's upset loss on the road to Penn State. The Hawkeyes still remain the favorite to finish at the top given the team's upcoming schedule, but given that Iowa just lost to Penn State, that may not look as easy as it first appeared. Maryland is also lurking back just one game, but the Terps have a tough final stretch.

However, the second group of teams is complete chaos. Four teams are tied at 9-5 in the standings and Wisconsin sits at 8-5 narrowly behind that group. Essentially, there are five teams that are in a complete battle for that No. 4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and the double-bye. It's hard to make any projections given the fact that any win or loss will dramatically change the tiebreaker. However, given Michigan State's schedule, the Spartans are in great shape.

Near the bottom, it looks like Nebraska and Northwestern are still the safe bets for the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds. Penn State is starting to make some serious noise, but the Nittany Lions are still a bit back. Additionally, with Minnesota's upset win on Thursday night, teams will really want that No. 11 seed to guarantee a game against Rutgers.

We'll have to see how next week impacts things, but it looks like an exciting race in the Big Ten.