Who will PSU play in the Big Tens?
March 9th, 2008 . by UncleLar
No matter what happens on today, PSU goes into the record books with a seventh place finish. What’s still undecided is their tournament seed.
If PSU beats Indiana on Sunday, they finish 7th alone and play Illinois (with the winner getting Indiana in the next round)
If PSU loses and Michigan loses, then PSU and Iowa tie for 7th. Iowa gets the 7th seed by virtue of of their win over Ohio State (Iowa is 1-1 against OSU, while we are 0-1). The head to head is irrelevant among PSU, Iowa, and Michigan because each of the teams went 1-1 against the other two, so the tiebreaker reverts to best winning percentage against the highest ranked team(or combined teams in the case of ties), continuing down through the standings until a difference is found (PSU and Iowa are both 0-2 against Wisconsin, 0-2 against Indiana, 0-2 against Purdue, and 1-1 against MSU, the tie is broken when you get to OSU). So Iowa would play Illinois and we would play Michigan (with the winner getting Wisconsin).
If PSU loses and Michigan wins, then PSU, Iowa, and Michigan all tie for 7th. Michigan would get the 7th seed because they would be 0-1 vs Indiana while PSU and Iowa would be 0-2 (for tiebreaking procedures when comparing records 0-1 is better than 0-2 and 2-0 is better than 1-0). Iowa would then get the 8th seed since they own the tiebreaker over us (see previous scenario). Michigan would then play Illinois and we would get Iowa (with the winner again getting Wisconsin).
Tonight is senior night for Penn State and the rumor mill is that fallen star Geary Claxton will suit up and make a symbolic start. Supposedly an arrangement has been struck where Michigan will allow PSU to win the jump, the refs will call an immediate time out, and Claxton will be removed from the game. If true, it’s a nice gesture by John Beilein’s squad to give the Happy Valley faithful a chance to honor their star on senior night.