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On Friday morning, CBSSports updated its bracketology for the 2016-’17 college basketball season and eight Big Ten teams were fortunate enough to make the cut. Although the conference doesn’t appear to be as loaded at the top as it has been in recent years, it still landed quite a few teams in this projected NCAA field.
While Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin were the only teams to make the cut, one has to figure teams like Michigan and Nebraska aren’t too far out of the just missed category.
Here is how the Big Ten was projected.
Big Ten In 1/13 CBS Bracketology By Seed:
- #5 - Minnesota, Purdue, Wisconsin
- #7 - Michigan State
- #8 - Maryland, Northwestern
- #9 - Indiana
- #10 - Illinois
- First Four Out: N/A
CBS actually currently has one of the more bullish projections on the Big Ten across the interwebs as Jerry Palm puts three Big Ten teams within his top 20 seeds. The lack of an elite seed is still concerning, but having a few more five seeds does help.
One other interesting projection by Palm was where he slotted Illinois. While many continue to believe the Illini have a real shot to make this year’s NCAA Tournament, seeing Illinois so easily make the field was surprising. Most other sites either have Illinois narrowly in the field or just outside.
Northwestern also got some serious love from CBS as the Wildcats sat as a No. 8 seed in this projection. If accurate, that should get the team some real leeway in the coming weeks. Personally, I tend to agree with this projection. Many of the other sites are down on Northwestern, but it seems more about their name than what they’ve done.
You can see the full field here.