Nebraska missed its chance at a potential Big Ten regular-season title late Friday. By Saturday evening, the Huskers officially settled for the No. 5 seed in the league tournament next week.
NU (28-20, 15-9) finished with a league mark identical to No. 3 seed Illinois and No. 4 seed Minnesota but lost head-to-head tiebreakers to both. Indiana beat Rutgers 13-3 on Saturday to claim the regular-season crown and No. 1 seed by a half game over No. 2 Michigan, which split a doubleheader with the Huskers on Friday.
NU will meet Minnesota in a game set for 9 p.m. Wednesday at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. The Gophers took two of three from NU in a series in late March, winning both games in walk-off fashion.
Nebraska is on the same side of the bracket as No. 1 Indiana and No. 8 Iowa — which qualified despite losing its last five league games. That game will begin at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The other matchups are No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 7 Ohio State at 1 p.m. after No. 3 Illinois and No. 6 Maryland at 9 a.m.
The Huskers missed the eight-team league tournament last season but are in strong position to also advance to an NCAA regional later this month regardless of what happens in Omaha. They ended the regular season with series wins over Arizona State and Michigan and held an RPI of 34 as of late Saturday.