Only the top seven teams in the conference make it into the Big Ten Tournament, and the Wisconsin men’s soccer team currently sits at eighth in the rankings, two points behind the Michigan Wolverines. If the Badgers beat the Wolverines on Sunday and take the three points, they will earn the seventh seed in the tournament. If the Badgers tie or lose, Michigan will take the last seed.
The top six teams in the Big Ten conference — Indiana, Ohio State, Maryland, Michigan State, Washington and UCLA — have secured their spot in the tournament already. While their seeding is subject to change with the matchups this week, each team has secured a spot in the tournament regardless.
Michigan sits in seventh place, and just the Badgers are right behind them in eighth. They are the only two teams that are still in the running to make the tournament and will face off on Sunday night.
Wisconsin has eight points while Michigan has ten, so the Badgers must win and earn the three points over the Wolverines to take the last spot. A tie won’t suffice. Michigan, on the other hand, can tie or win to secure their spot.
Penn State, Northwestern and Rutgers make up the last three places in conference standings. While Wisconsin and Penn State have eight points apiece, the Nittany Lions are out of the running.
If Penn State defeats Northwestern on Sunday, they will have 11 points. Meanwhile, Michigan can enter the tournament with as little as 11 points coming from a tie against Wisconsin. In this scenario, Penn State and Michigan would have 11 points each, but the first tiebreak rule considers conference records, which would go in Michigan’s favor.
If Wisconsin and Penn State win their respective games, they would each have 11 points and the same conference record. However, the second tiebreaker rule looks at head-to-head results, and because of Wisconsin’s 2-0 shutout over Penn State on Oct. 26, Wisconsin would advance.
While there are several different scenarios, the common thread shows that Wisconsin and Michigan are the only two teams still in contention for the last spot in the tournament.
The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the two teams couldn’t be more competitive against each other.
Even if you aren’t a soccer superfan, this is one to watch.
Kickoff will be at 1 p.m. at the McClimon Soccer Complex in Madison on Sunday.
