Big Ten Tournament Baseball Seeding Scenarios 2024: Exploring team standings, potential matchups and tournament predictions 

The Big Ten Tournament is ready to go. The league sends only its top eight teams to the conference tournament, so the bottom five teams in the Big Ten won't be in the Tournament.

Still, the double-elimination battle promises to offer plenty of interesting matchups and a week of fascinating baseball.

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Big Ten Tournament baseball seeding scenarios

Veteran Iowa coach Rick Heller.

Here's the eight seeds who will play in the Big Ten Tournament.

Seed	Team	Conference Record
1	Illinois	18-6
2	Nebraska	16-8
3	Indiana	15-9
4	Iowa	14-10
5	Michigan	14-10
6	Purdue	13-11
7	Ohio State	12-12
8	Penn State	12-12

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Teams that are out of the Tournament

Eliminated before the Tournament are Minnesota and Michigan State (each 11-13), Maryland (10-14), Rutgers (6-18) and Northwestern (4-20).

First-Round Match-ups

The first round matchups feature No. 3 seed Indiana vs. No. 6 seed Purdue on Tuesday at 11 a.m. EST. No. 2 seed Nebraska will take on No. 7 seed Ohio State at 3 p.m. EST on Tuesday. In the late game, at 7 pm EST, No. 1 seed Illinois will face No. 8 seed Penn State.

The final first-round game will be at 3 pm EST Wednesday, when No. 4 seed Iowa faces No. 5 seed Michigan.

From there, the Tournament will break into a winner's bracket and a loser's bracket, based on outcomes from the first round games. The Tournament's final is schedule for Sunday at 3 pm EST.

Potential Big Ten Tournament matchups

Nebraska is the only Big Ten team safely within the NCAA Tournament field, per the latest projections from Baseball America. Two teams on the bubble are Indiana (one of the last four teams in) and Illinois (one of the first four teams out).

A second-round Illinois/Iowa battle could be an interesting one, as the Illini could certainly use a deep run to help with their Tournament situation.

In fact, Illinois' Tournament hopes are probably pinned on advancing to the Finals. The good news is that they avoided both Nebraska and Indiana in their side of the bracket.

Speaking of which, a potential second round Indiana/Nebraska battle would be a big matchup. Indiana may need to emerge from the bottom half of the bracket and make the finals to make the NCAA field. Nebraska probably has a little more room for error.

Of course, the one failsafe way to clinch an NCAA spot is by winning the Tournament. For the field outside the top three teams, that seems like the only settled way to lock down a spot.

Big Ten Tournament predictions

The x-factor in the Big Ten Tournament is Nebraska's pitching. The Big Ten, as a whole, doesn't have a ton of outstanding arms.

Nebraska is the only team in the league with a sub-5.00 ERA on the season. In fact, the Huskers' 4.37 mark is almost seven-tenths of a run per game better than second place Purdue.

Brett Sears (8-0, 2.05 ERA) and Mason McConnaughey (7-3, 3.10) are two of the league's top arms. That's certainly enough to get the Huskers to the league's final.

On the other side of the bracket, Iowa is interesting because ace Brody Brecht (4-3, 3.55, 118 strikeouts in 71 innings) has absolutely filthy stuff.

If Iowa can save him for a matchup with Illinois, the Hawkeyes could sneak their way deep into the bracket. But Iowa may need Brecht to get past Michigan in the opener.

In the end, Nebraska's superb mound group takes care of business. The Huskers win, and Sunday is spent seeing how many other Big Ten teams can sneak into the field. The early guess-- if Nebraska wins-- is probably just one more, either Illinois or Indiana.

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What matchups are you looking forward to seeing in the Big Ten Tournament? Share your thoughts below in our comments section: