Despite a disappointing end to the regular season, Iowa baseball still has a chance to extend its season into the postseason. That starts with the Big Ten Tournament, which gets underway at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha this week.
The conclusion of the regular season set up the field for this year's Big Ten Tournament, which is available below.
While the Hawkeyes led the Big Ten standings for much of the season, they stumbled in the final few weeks, going 1-8-1 in their final 10 games, including a 1-5 mark in Big Ten games and getting swept by Oregon this weekend. That finish left them at 32-20-1 overall and 21-9 in Big Ten action, good for third-place. Iowa finished behind Big Ten regular season co-champions UCLA and Oregon, who each finished 22-8 in the league in their debut season.
The Big Ten Tournament has undergone a significant format change this year, though. Previously, the top eight regular season finishers qualified for the Big Ten Tournament and played a double-elimination tournament. Now, 12 of the Big Ten's 17 baseball-playing schools (Wisconsin does not sponsor baseball) qualify for the tournament. There's no longer a true double-elimination format, either, although a loss in the opening games doesn't eliminate a team, either.
Instead, the first half of the tournament will feature pool play, involving four groups with three teams each. Iowa, the 3-seed, will play Indiana, the 6-seed, and Rutgers, the 10-seed, in pool play. Oregon (1-seed), UCLA (2-seed), and USC (4-seed) are the other top seeds in the tournament.
The four winners of each pool advance to the semifinals and from there the tournament plays out like a traditional single-elimination tournament. If all three teams go 1-1 in the pool, the higher-seeded team advances to the semifinal round. That means the teams seeded 5-12 must go 2-0 in poll play to have a chance to make it to the semifinals.
Iowa opens the Big Ten Tournament against Rutgers at approximately 6 PM CT on Wednesday, May 21. Iowa's second pool play game against Indiana is scheduled for approximately 2 PM CT on Friday, May 23. (The third game in Iowa's pool, Indiana-Rutgers, is set for approximately 2 PM CT on Tuesday, May 20.)
The Hawkeyes get a little bit of added rest by not playing their first pool play game until Wednesday night, though they could have to play games on three consecutive days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) if they advance to the final.
Advancing to -- and winning -- the final is likely necessary for Iowa to extend its season beyond the Big Ten Tournament as well. That aforementioned 1-8-1 finish to the regular season has seen the Hawkeyes tumble to 74th in the most recent RPI rankings. That certainly won't be good enough to merit an at-large pick.
Wins over Rutgers (RPI: 80) and Indiana (RPI: 62) likely won't move the needle much for Iowa, either. Wins over USC (RPI: 41), UCLA (RPI: 15), or Oregon (RPI: 12) in the semifinal and final certainly would move the needle -- and obviously winning the final would earn Iowa the Big Ten's automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament. Given that shaky RPI number and poor strength of schedule ranking (Iowa was #121 in S.O.S. prior to this weekend's series against Oregon), finding a way to win the Big Ten Tournament is the best -- and probably only -- way for Iowa to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.
The 2025 Big Ten Tournament gets underway on Tuesday, May 20. All 15 games in the tournament are scheduled to air on Big Ten Network. The full schedule for the Big Ten Tournament is available here.
