It's the most wonderful time of the year for college baseball fans as it is now conference tournament week. All across the nation, college baseball conferences will conduct tournaments to see who makes the NCAA Tournament next week.
The Big 10 tournament is being played at TD Ameritrade Park, the same ballpark that will play host to the College World Series in a few weeks. Here is a look at the tournament to get you ready for when the action begins on Wednesday morning.
The format
The tournament format is an eight-team double elimination format, with the teams split up into two four-team pools. The top overall seed is the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who are dedicating the season to assistant coach Todd Oakes, who is in his third battle with Leukemia, and was recently moved to hospice care. The Gophers will face the eighth seed Iowa Hawkeyes to open the tournament.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are the second overall seed and the top seed in the top half of the bracket. They will face the Michigan State Spartans on Wednesday to open the season. The Spartans are the seventh overall seed.
The top half of the bracket is rounded out by the third overall seed Indiana Hoosiers facing the sixth overall seed Maryland Terrapins. That will be played at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning to open the tournament.
The bottom half of the bracket is rounded out with the fourth seed Ohio State Buckeyes facing the fifth seed Michigan Wolverines in the final game on Wednesday. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Minnesota - Iowa game.
The Matchups
#1 Minnesota - #8 Iowa
These two teams played just once this season, in early April. That was a three-game series in Minnesota, in which the Gophers won two out of the three games. The first game was a 4-3 Gophers win, with the second game going to Iowa by a 6-3 score. The third and final game was also a 6-3 score, but in favor of the Gophers.
#2 Nebraska - #7 Michigan State
This is another matchup of two teams that played just one three-game series during the regular season. That series, played in early May, saw the Cornhuskers win two of the three games over the Spartans. Nebraska won the first game by a 6-3 score, while the Spartans took the second game 4-2. The rubber game was won by Nebraska by a 7-4 score.
#3 Indiana - #6 Maryland
These two teams did not play during the regular season. Indiana enters the tournament with a 15-9 conference record (31-22 overall.) Maryland enters the tournament with a 13-11 (28-25 overall.) The winner of this game will face the winner of Nebraska and Michigan State.
#4 Ohio State - #5 Michigan
This is the 4 - 5 matchup, which is the most likely to end in an upset, but if previous results are any indication, Ohio State has the edge, as they swept the only series these two played against each other, in mid-May. The winner of this game will face the winner of Minnesota - Iowa.