Prior to the Big Ten Tournament, many thought MSU would need to beat Minnesota to get into the Big Dance. It was widely assumed that the Spartans would face Ohio State, the tournament’s top seed, and, win or lose, would have enough to get in.

But all bets were off once the Fighting Illini toppled the Buckeyes in the quarterfinals and Purdue stopped Iowa in the other semifinal game.

The only way for Purdue and Illinois to make the field of 64 coming into the tournament was to win it. Now, one of those teams could potentially steal the berth with MSU’s name on it.

It’s assumed that Ohio State, Iowa and Minnesota are in. The winner of Sunday’s tournament final will be the fourth Big Ten team in, earning the league’s automatic berth.

Now, with the Big Ten having what is considered to be a down year, can the league sneak five teams into the backdoor of the tournament?

From this standpoint, it’s not looking good.

Head coach Suzy Merchant seemed confident in her team’s chances following Saturday’s loss, saying she feels comfortable about where they stand.

“I feel like we belong there,” she said. “Our RPI is right up there, we’ve got five wins, maybe six, over top-50 teams and won seven of our last 10. We had one bad night. We beat a great Minnesota team … we put ourselves in position to be in a situation where they need to consider us. I think we are an NCAA Tournament team.”

The Spartans boast big victories against Kansas State, Ohio State, Iowa and Minnesota, not to mention victories against Illinois and Purdue. Their strength of schedule is decent, having played (but lost to) tough mid-major teams in Old Dominion and Hartford on the road.

Merchant said she believes that the Big Ten isn’t down, there’s just parity.

“It’s just better, top to bottom,” she said. “That’s just the bottom line. We added two more games to our schedule and we beat up on each two more times than has ever been done in the past. Do they look at that? I don’t know, but I feel good about what we accomplished.”

But will the selection committee recognize this? That’s the big wild card.

If MSU doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament, there’s always the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), but don’t tell that to sophomore center Lauren Aitch, who said the team, “doesn’t even want to think about that other thing.”

Now the team has eight days to sit and await its fate before Selection Monday next week.

“It just sucks because we really wanted our future in our hands and now it’s not really up to us anymore,” freshman guard Brittney Thomas said. “We just have to wait around and try to be focused.”

A trip to the WNIT would be viewed as a disappointment for a team that’s been to the NCAA Tournament the last five seasons, but MSU surely would be a high seed and in a position to host a few games at Breslin Center — not to mention the team would be a favorite to win the whole thing.

Matt Bishop is the State News deputy sports editor. He can be reached at bishop20@msu.edu.