The Big Ten this afternoon announced its tournament bracket, and the seedings are as follows:

Ohio State gets the No. 1 seed for the fifth time in its history, after being the outright Big Ten regular season champion with a 16-2 conference record. Purdue is No. 2, Wisconsin No. 3, Michigan No. 4 and Illinois No. 5. All of those teams will get first-round byes.

The tournament begins on Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The first game will be at 1:30 p.m. CST, matching No. 8 Northwestern vs. No. 9 Minnesota; that game will be televised on ESPN2. That will be followed by No. 7 Michigan State facing No. 10 Iowa, also on ESPN2. The third and final game of the day will be between No. 6 Penn State and No. 11 Indiana. That one will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Stay with this SB Nation Chicago StoryStream™ for all the details and analysis of the 2011 Big Ten Tournament.