by Alana Klein

Only 2 games this weekend, so most of us are talkin’ about practice. What are we talkin’ about? Practice?

What to Watch For

• Beaumont-Nashville
  • Beaumont has to start playing like they have nothing to lose if they want an invite to the party. Nashville needs to avoid going into cruise control for their next two games, as their season  finale in Albany will more likely than not decide home-field advantage. However, if they slip up before then, they could miss out on the bye altogether.
    
• Michigan-Washington
  • If you can believe it, this might be a must-win for Washington more than it is for Michigan, especially if they want to avoid the 6-seed path. Meanwhile, just about no one’s playing better than Michigan right now. With a little help, they could even host a 1st-round game.

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Tiebreaker-clinching scenarios

• The Beaumont-Nashville head-to-head is irrelevant to the standings.
• The winner of Michigan-Washington will clinch that head-to-head outright.

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PLAYOFFS?! Don’t talk about playoffs! PLAYOFFS?!

I’m doing things a little differently this week. Since there are only 2 games this weekend, I’ve prepared the playoff scenarios for both this weekend (Week 12) and next (Week 13). All of the scenarios except for Albany’s somehow tie into this weekend. Some will even be decided by this weekend.

* Please note that when I say a team has “clinched” a playoff seed, that means that they are AT LEAST that seed, but they can improve it. (e.g. a team that has clinched a 4-seed can improve to a 3 or a 2 or a 1, but not drop to a 5 or a 6.) If a team is locked into a spot, I will annotate it as such.

• Albany: has clinched a 3-seed, best possible seed: 1
  • Can clinch a 2-seed with
    • Win over Beaumont OR
    • Kentucky loss to Minnesota
      
      
• Beaumont: not currently in the playoffs, best possible seed: 3
  • No clinching scenarios
    
    
• Kentucky: has clinched a 6-seed, best possible seed: 1
  • Can clinch a 5-seed with
    • Minnesota loses to both Michigan and Nashville
      
  • Can clinch a 3-sed with
    • Win over Minnesota AND
      • Washington loss to either Michigan or Nashville
        
        
• Michigan: not currently in the playoffs, best possible seed: 4
  • No clinching scenarios
    
    
• Minnesota: not currently in the playoffs, best possible seed: 3
  • Can clinch a playoff berth with
    • Michigan loss to Washington OR
    • Win over Kentucky
      
  • Can clinch a 5-seed with
    • Win over Kentucky AND
      • Washington loss to Michigan AND
      • Washington loss to Nashville
        
        
• Nashville: has clinched a 4-seed, best possible seed: 1
  • Can clinch a 3-seed with
    • Win over Beaumont OR
    • Michigan win over Washington
      
  • Can clinch a 2-seed with
    • Wins over both Beaumont and Washington OR
    • Win over either Beaumont or Washington AND
      • Kentucky loss to Minnesota
        
  • Can clinch the 1-seed and home-field advantage with
    • Wins over both Beaumont and Washington AND
      • Albany loss to Beaumont
        
        
• Washington: not currently in the playoffs, best possible seed: 2
  • Can clinch a playoff berth with
    • Win over Michigan OR
    • Win over Nashville AND
      • Beaumont losses to both Nashville and Albany
        
  • Can clinch a 5-seed with
    • Win over Michigan AND
      • Beaumont loss to Nashville AND
      • Win over Nashville AND
      • Beaumont loss to Albany