Big Ten Tournament Wednesday: Three Quarter-Finals, One Bye, and a Wide-Open Race in Columbus

Wednesday is when the Big Ten stops sharing things.

The conference tournament starts at Buckeye Varsity Field in Columbus, Ohio, with three quarter-finals back to back, and the prize is simple: survive and you play Friday. Lose and your season is done. Top seeds Northwestern, who shared the regular-season title with Maryland at 7-1, sit out Wednesday with a bye straight into the semi-finals.

Here’s the card, all times Eastern, all on B1G+:

Rutgers v Indiana opens the day at 11am. Rutgers are the No. 4 seed at 11-7, Indiana No. 5 at 9-7 and 4-4 in conference play. The winner gets Northwestern on Friday at 1pm, and that’s the toughest reward in the bracket.

Maryland v Ohio State follows at 2pm. The Terps are 16-1, the No. 2 seed, and they just thumped Iowa 5-1 to claim a share of the title. Ohio State are 7-10, the No. 7 seed, but they’re at home, and they earned this spot by beating Michigan 2-1 in Ann Arbor on the final day. Maryland won the regular-season meeting 4-0. Home turf is Ohio State’s best argument for a different result this time.

Penn State v Iowa closes the day at 5pm, and this one might be the best game of the three. Penn State are the No. 3 seed at 12-5 after stunning No. 1 Northwestern 2-0 on Friday. Iowa are No. 6 at 12-4, and they beat Penn State 1-0 back on 25 October. So the form guide points both ways, and the winner almost certainly runs into Maryland on Friday.

The semi-finals are Friday on BTN, the final is Sunday 8 November, and the winner takes the conference’s automatic NCAA bid. Northwestern are still the team everyone has to go through. But after Friday’s results, nobody in Columbus will be treating the rest of this bracket as a formality.