Ohio State basketball prepares for Rutgers with Big Ten Tournament seeding on the line

After a win over the TTUN and a week off, The Ohio State basketball team has their final game of the regular season this afternoon at Rutgers in the RAC. With their late-season charge, the Buckeyes have one more meaningful regular season game as they can still improve their seeding in the Big Ten Tournament with a win today. Let’s go through the potential seeding scenarios for the Ohio State basketball team.

The Ohio State basketball team currently sits in 10th place in the Big Ten Standings with a conference record of 8-11. After Minnesota’s loss to Northwestern last night, that puts the Buckeyes a half-game back from the Golden Gophers in the standings. 

Right now, the highest possible seed Ohio State can get in the Big Ten Tournament is the 9th seed. A win today at Rutgers will put them at 9-11 and in a tie for 9th place with Minnesota. Now if Penn State also beats Maryland later today, that will make them 9-11 in conference play as well, and in a three-way tie for 9th place. Now how would that tiebreaker work out?

The Buckeyes split the season series with both Minnesota and Penn State during the regular season. Since they split, the tiebreaker goes to the team with the best win in the conference. Ohio State would end up with the 9th seed in this scenario because of their win over Purdue who won the Big Ten regular season championship. 

Something to note is that the Buckeyes can’t get a seed higher than 9th since they were swept by Indiana during the season. The Hoosiers are currently 9-10 in the conference and host Michigan State this afternoon. If the Spartans win in Assembly Hall, it locks Indiana in at the eight-seed because they beat Ohio State both times head-to-head. 

Now what happens if the Ohio State basketball team loses to Rutgers today? Because of tiebreakers, Ohio State would be the 11th seed in the worst possible scenario. They would have then split with Rutgers, and they beat Maryland in their lone head-to-head matchup during the season. That win over Purdue again gives the Buckeyes the tiebreaker in this instance.

It would be the worst possible outcome for the Ohio State basketball team to lose today and end up as the 11th seed in the Big Ten Tournament. That means it would not give them a bye, and they’d have to win five games in five days to secure the automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament which has never been done before in the Big Ten Tournament.

Today’s final regular season game at Rutgers is crucial as there is still a lot riding on this game. Securing a bye in the Big Ten Tournament would make it easier for the Buckeyes to make a run at winning it all, or getting enough wins to make it in without the automatic bid.

The Ohio State basketball currently ranks 60th in the NET rankings. They’ve won three games in a row, and four of their last five. Despite recent struggles at the RAC, the Buckeyes will look to keep rolling and improve their chances at making The Big Dance.