With Michigan and Michigan State both competing in conference play tonight, there is still some uncertainty in who will claim the Big Ten regular season Championship come early March. Both Teams stand at 9-2 in conference play which is still tied with red hot Purdue. Also worth noting that they are both only one game up on Wisconsin, who ended last week with a huge 8-point win over Maryland.

The Big Ten looks the strongest it has been all year with 6 ranked teams, but there is major concern from the highest two ranked teams in the Big Ten.

Purdue is done playing both schools from Michigan and their hardest test from here on out is arguably at Maryland which will be played at the Xfinity Center in exactly a week from today. The Michigan schools however have yet to play one another. They will first play each other on the 24th of February and then 3 games later on March 9th to end both Michigan and Michigan State’s regular season.

The schedule for both teams are not ideal in comparison to Purdue’s remaining schedule and have been back-loaded for the sole purpose of getting higher quality viewer ratings. I don’t see Wisconsin truly throwing their team in the race because they have to go play at Michigan on Saturday and Michigan State at home next Tuesday. Then finally Iowa comes to town in Early March on the 7th.

How could it go down?

My safe prediction is that Purdue will lose one game coming in, Michigan and Michigan State split, and all three teams tie each other for the regular season title.

My worst-case scenario is that Michigan sweeps Sparty and wins out, Michigan state loses at Indiana again March 2nd, and Purdue goes on a 16-game winning streak to end the season, resulting in a tie with Michigan for the regular season crown.

Purdue has Carson Edwards, the best overall player in the Big Ten. Michigan State has Casssius Winston, the best passer and creator in the Big Ten. And of course Michigan has John Beilein, arguably the hottest March Madness coach the last five years.

The Big Ten is a wide-open race from team one to team four. Year in and year out, the Big Ten is the most physical conference in the country and 2019 is no different. They may not be the most talented conference because of teams like Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisville all playing in the same conference now.  But you just can’t go wrong with Big Ten basketball! Michigan looks as good as they did with the Fab Five, Michigan State may be the most consistent team come March the past 20 years, and if Coach Painter can get Edwards to score 40 per game come March they might be unbeatable. I doubt a Big Ten team will hold the National Championship trophy come Final Four weekend but someone will punch their ticket into the Final Four, you have my word!