Michigan remains No. 1 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings for the seventh consecutive day, and the Wolverines are currently projected in computers to win the Big Ten regular-season championships by multiple games.
That’s likely how things will unfold.
But Tuesday will be a big and busy night in the conference — and, if things go a certain way, we could wake up Wednesday with the top six teams in the Big Ten all within two games of each other. Here’s what would need to take place for that to happen: If Purdue beats Michigan on Tuesday, and if Michigan State beats UCLA, and if Wisconsin beats Ohio State, and if Nebraska beats Iowa, then the top six teams in the Big Ten would be within two games of each other in the loss column of the conference standings on Wednesday morning.
To be clear, each of those games going that way isn’t a likely scenario — but they are all reasonable outcomes. According to KenPom.com, Purdue is only projected as a 2-point underdog to Michigan, Michigan State is projected as a 9-point favorite against UCLA, Wisconsin is only projected as a 1-point underdog at Ohio State and Nebraska is projected as a 1-point favorite at Iowa. Point being — there’s nothing crazy about Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Nebraska winning those games Tuesday.
If they do, the Big Ten standings will look like this:
1. Michigan: 14-2
T-2. Illinois: 12-3
T-2. Purdue: 12-3
T-2. Nebraska: 12-3
T-5. Michigan State: 11-4
T-5. Wisconsin: 11-4
All six of those teams are in Monday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Michigan is No. 1. Purdue is No. 7. Nebraska is No. 8. Illinois is No. 10. Michigan State is No. 15. And Wisconsin is No. 26.
