The Iowa soccer team may not have a chance at grabbing one of the last couple of spots in the Big Ten Tournament, but there is still a fight at the bottom of the division to grab them.
Ohio State, Michigan State, Illinois, and Nebraska are still in the hunt.
Either the Buckeyes or the Spartans will take the seventh spot; the two play each other in the season finale Wednesday.
That is, unless Ohio State and Michigan State tie. Then they both automatically qualify for the tournament.
If that does not happen, though, and one of the teams beats the other, there will only be one place left. Either Ohio State or Michigan State will be left with 14 points, which leaves the door open for both Illinois and Nebraska. A win from Illinois means it will take the eighth seed. An Illinois loss and a Nebraska win will lead to a tiebreaker between the Huskers and the loser of Ohio State/Michigan State.
The six teams that have found a spot for themselves are Wisconsin, Penn State, Rutgers, Michigan, Northwestern, and Minnesota.
Wisconsin’s win over Maryland on Oct. 24 gave the Badgers at least a share of the Big Ten title.
On top of determining the last couple of spots in the tournament, Wednesday will also decide if Wisconsin will be the sole Big Ten champion or if Penn State will take a share of it.
A Wisconsin win will clinch the title. However, if Penn State wins and Wisconsin loses, the two teams will share. If both lose, it’s all Wisconsin’s.
Wisconsin has not won a regular-season title since 1994. An eight-game winning streak after a loss to Penn State and a tie with Ohio State has propelled the team to the top spot.
“I told the team we lost for nothing at Penn State, and I said you have to decide what type of team you need to be and want to be,” Wisconsin head coach Paula Wilkins said in a press conference. “I think it took some pressure off them. I think that they started playing and focusing on one game at a time.
Penn State, on the other hand, has been the outright Big Ten champion in nine of the last 12 seasons and had a share of the championship once more. Being at the top is nothing new for the Nittany Lions.
Both Ohio State and Illinois have plenty of experience in Big Ten tournaments over the past four years. Illinois has been in every one since 2011, and Ohio State has only missed one.
Michigan State, which has the best chance of making the tournament this year besides Ohio State, has only appeared in one tournament in that time span.
“I keep going back to if we can focus on what we can do best, we will get the result,” Michigan State head coach Mary Kathryn Fiebernitz said in a release. “We control our destiny. We just need to focus on what we are doing and not what the hoopla is outside of our team.”