If the favorites take care of business on Sunday, there’s a very strong chance Michigan and Michigan State will play for a third time this year.
Michigan State has wrapped up the regular season — finishing at 19-11 overall and 11-8 in conference play — and will wait until Sunday night to know its seed and possible matchup in next week’s Big Ten Tournament. The Spartans could finish as high as a No. 3 seed and as low as a No. 7 seed based on results from Sunday’s six final league games.
One of the possibilities includes a potential matchup with rival Michigan in the quarterfinals on Friday. According to Spartans fan Andrew Cumbow, if Indiana beats Michigan, Iowa beats Nebraska, Penn State beats Maryland, Purdue beats Illinois and Rutgers beats Northwestern on Sunday, the Spartans would land as the No. 4 seed and Michigan as the No. 5 seed. This sounds like a lot to have happen, but all of those outcomes are the intended results based on Vegas odds so it really doesn’t seem that unlikely to occur.
If Indiana, Iowa, Penn State, Purdue, and Rutgers all win today (all are favored), Michigan State would be the 4 and Michigan the 5 setting up a possible matchup on Friday afternoon.
— Andrew Cumbow (@ACumbow) March 5, 2023
In this scenario, Michigan would also need to beat the winner of the No. 12/13 seed matchup on Thursday to create the rivalry pairing with the Spartans on Friday. That would most likely be against Nebraska or Ohio State so I like the Wolverines’ chances to advance to the quarterfinals.
We will know where the Spartans and Wolverines land by about 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday night. But don’t be surprised if it includes a likely matchup between these two rivals next Friday.
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