With a week remaining in the Big Ten women’s soccer schedule, five slots are still up for grabs in the eight-team conference tournament.

No seed has been secured, and all 11 teams are still in the hunt.

Northwestern concludes its conference play this weekend, while the rest of the Big Ten finishes its slate Oct. 25.

The Cats will have to sit and wait for five days after the end of their conference season to find out if they’ve qualified for the tournament.

“We’re prepared to do that,” NU head coach Jenny Haigh said. “We knew the last weekend we wouldn’t have anybody, but we’re focusing on what we can control, and that’s this weekend’s games.”

No. 9 Penn State, No. 13 Michigan and Michigan State have guaranteed their presence in East Lansing, Mich., where the postseason will be played. These three teams will use the end of Big Ten competition to contend for the regular season championship and preferred match-ups in the opening round of the playoffs.

The rest of the conference must rely on points in the standings to keep their seasons going.

PURDUE: The No. 16 Boilermakers are in fourth place, and finish the season on the road at Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.

But if Purdue doesn’t improve on its 0-1-1 road record in Big Ten play, the team could make a quick descent through the standings.

INDIANA: The Hoosiers share fifth place with Wisconsin, and travel to Iowa and Illinois before hosting the Boilermakers to end the regular season.

Indiana is the only Big Ten team without anyone on its roster with postseason experience.

WISCONSIN: The Badgers complete their season with two home games — against Ohio State and Penn State — and a road game at Minnesota.

Wisconsin is looking to return to postseason play after finishing second in the Big Ten in 2000.

NU: The Cats now find themselves in a three-way tie for seventh, and end their season at home against the Wolverines and the Spartans.

NU faces the toughest opponents of the cluster of teams with seven points in the standings. The Cats also have just two games to increase their point total while every other team has three.

OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes face the best and worst teams in the Big Ten — Penn State and Minnesota — after taking on the Badgers on Friday.

Ohio State has yet to upset any team in conference play.

IOWA: The Hawkeyes have three home games to finish the season, and face the easiest opponents of the seventh-place teams.

The Cats will watch Iowa’s match with Illinois closely, and could end up rooting for either team.

ILLINOIS: The Fighting Illini are just a tie away from a share of seventh. They host Purdue and Indiana before closing out the season on the road against Iowa.

Illinois holds a huge edge in experience over the rest of the teams on the playoff bubble: No current Illini player has had her season end before the second round of the Big Ten tournament. Last season, Illinois reached the finals, where it fell to the Lady Lions.

MINNESOTA: The Golden Gophers are by far the long shot, forced by the schedule to finish up against Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin. However, the tough final stretch might be a positive for the Gophers — their only win this season came against Michigan.

  

Depending on this weekend’s results, NU could rise to fifth or sink all the way to 11th.

With such a tight pack, and with two spots already being shared, the Big Ten’s complex tie-breaking scheme could come into play.

The Cats hold the advantage over just two teams in the first tie-breaker, having beaten Iowa and Minnesota.

The other tie-breaker would only come into play for NU against Indiana, who the Cats tied. But the Hoosiers currently hold the edge with a 3-2 margin over NU in the win column.

NU faces the possibility of posting six points with a 2-0 weekend, and still missing the postseason.

“That would be a huge disappointment,” Wilson said. “But there have been games where we didn’t put the other team away. There are games out there that should’ve been wins that we don’t have.”

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All 11 Big Ten teams have shot at playoffs

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NU tied for seventh place in conference with 2 games left, postseason future in jeopardy