The Big Ten Tournament will only take the top 15 teams from the Big Ten standings. The battle for those final spots is actually pretty close, and each game will matter. Considering that the bottom five teams in the Big Ten only have 11 collective conference wins, every win will be important.
Wisconsin is currently sitting in 14th place in the Big Ten with only two games to go. They are two games in front of the bottom four teams. Three of those teams are sitting at two wins, and Penn State only has one win. This being said, it would take a lot for the Badgers to miss out on the Big Ten tournament, especially after a dumb decision by the Big Ten that penalized Northwestern.
B1G has issued forfeits to Northwestern women’s basketball team for not traveling to the LA schools. pic.twitter.com/NMQAP5s12f
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) February 26, 2025
The Big Ten announced that Northwestern is forced to forfeit the games against USC and UCLA
During the wildfires in Los Angeles, the Northwestern Wildcats were supposed to travel to LA to play against both USC and UCLA. The wildfires were causing teams to change their plans, even at the professional level. Because of the concern about the fires, Northwestern decided to postpone that trip and work to reschedule those games. However, today, it was announced that the Big Ten would instead make them forfeit those games. Giving Northwestern two losses and UCLA and USC each a win.
This feels absolutely harsh. Northwestern was doing what other teams were doing at the time during a natural disaster but is going to be punished for it. Because of that, the 2-15 Northwestern team is unable to catch the 4-14 Wisconsin team. There are not enough games to pass them, and this decision by the Big Ten almost assures that the Badgers will be in the Big Ten Tournament.
It's an unfair decision even though Northwestern probably wouldn't have been able to win either game; without them being played, we will never know.