CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Illinois baseball team has won two straight Big Ten series and three of its last four three-game sets to get back in the Big Ten Tournament picture. The Illini are still outside of the top eight required to qualify, sitting just one game back of Northwestern and Michigan State.
The top eight seeds in the tournament are determined by winning percentage in Big Ten Conference games. Illinois (21-24, 7-11 Big Ten) owns the tiebreaker over Northwestern due to its series win, but does not have the tiebreaker over Michigan State because the Spartans beat the Illini in three games.
If three or more teams are tied and they have all played each other as part of the conference schedule, the team(s) with the best winning percentage(s) in these head-to-head games earns the higher seed. In the case of Illinois, Northwestern and Michigan State, the Spartans would get the highest seed and/or bid due to their series wins over the Illini and Wildcats. (complete tiebreaker procedure)
Ohio State is only one game back of Illinois and two games back of the eighth spot. The Illini and Buckeyes do not play each other in the regular season.
The Illini still have series left at 12th-place Rutgers (May 12-14) and against fourth-place Iowa (May 19-21).
| Big Ten Standings (only B1G games left listed) |
|
Team |
Big Ten |
Win Pct. |
B1G Left |
May 12-14 |
May 16 |
May 18-20 |
| 1 |
NEB |
12-5-1 |
.694 |
6 |
MSU |
|
at PSU |
| 2 |
MD |
14-7 |
.667 |
3 |
NW |
|
|
| 3 |
MINN |
12-6 |
.667 |
5 |
|
RUT (2) |
PUR |
| 4 |
MICH |
11-7 |
.611 |
6 |
at PUR |
|
at MSU |
|
IOWA |
11-7 |
.611 |
6 |
OSU |
|
at ILL |
| 6 |
IND |
10-7-1 |
.583 |
6 |
at PSU |
|
at OSU |
| 7 |
PUR |
10-8 |
.556 |
6 |
MICH |
|
at MINN |
| 8 |
MSU |
8-10 |
.444 |
6 |
at NEB |
|
MICH |
|
NW |
8-10 |
.444 |
6 |
at MD |
|
RUT |
| 10 |
ILL |
7-11 |
.389 |
6 |
at RUT |
|
IOWA |
| 11 |
OSU |
6-12 |
.333 |
6 |
at IOWA |
|
IND |
| 12 |
RUT |
5-10 |
.333 |
8 |
ILL |
at MINN (2) |
at NW |
| 13 |
PSU |
2-16 |
.111 |
6 |
IND |
|
NEB |
