How Big Ten Tournament Loss Impacts Gophers' NCAA Tournament Seeding

Gophers women's basketball was eliminated from the Big Ten tournament on Friday with a loss in the quarterfinals to Ohio State, which means their NCAA Tournament resume has been finalized. They will be firmly in this year's field, but there will still be plenty of drama heading into Selection Sunday on March 15. Let's break it down.

The Gophers were the 15th-ranked team in the NCAA Selection Committee's Top 16 reveal last Sunday, which means they would be a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament and host the first two rounds. After Friday's loss, they're still firmly in that range, so the question becomes whether they will be a four or five seed in the tournament.

Gophers' resume

Overall record: 22-8
Big Ten record: 13-5
NET Ranking: 8th
Quad 1 record: 5-7
Quad 2 record: 2-1
Quad 3 record: 6-0
Quad 4 record: 9-0

College basketball resumes are nearly fully cooked before conference tournaments. A five-point loss to Ohio State on a neutral floor will likely have zero impact on Minnesota's NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking, nor should it. They played one of their worst games of 2026 and nearly beat a top-20 team.

At first glance, I think Minnesota will still be inside the top 16 and claim a top-four seed. Other teams on the four line of the NCAA's latest reveal included Maryland and Michigan State, which both failed to reach the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament. The Gophers failed to beat both teams at home, but the NCAA has to rank someone in the top 16.

Teams from other conferences who could sneak into the top 16 include Kentucky, West Virginia or North Carolina. Minnesota's ironclad ranking in the NET gives me confidence in their chances of holding on to the four line.

Reason to be optimistic

For those who don't know, the NET is the top metric used by the NCAA to seed teams for its tournament. They created the metric, and they know how it works. Minnesota will enter Selection Sunday as a top 10 team in the NET, so the NCAA admitting their own metric is wrong and dropping the Gophers out of the top 16 seems unlikely in my opinion.

Making a run in the Big Ten tournament would've obviously helped Minnesota's outlook in the NCAA Tournament, but the loss shouldn't have much of an impact. They will have 13 or 14 days off before the first round on March 19 and 20.