BTN.com staff, January 24, 2012

I caught up with Jerry Palm today to discuss the Big Ten and the NCAA field. Palm thinks the Big Ten still is in line to get nine bids to the Big Dance-with Iowa, Nebraska and Penn State left out. But he thinks Purdue is in peril of falling from the field. And, yes, Northwestern fans: Palm still has the Wildcats in the NCAA tourney despite their recent struggles.

Another interesting note from our conversation: As of now, Palm doesn?t think the Big Ten has a No. 1 seed-and it may not come Selection Sunday, either. For details on that and other Big Ten/NCAA Tournament talk, click on the audio below to listen to my phone conversation with Palm as I talk to him each week on this very topic. And be sure to check out Jerry?s work at CBSSports.com, where he is the resident bracketologist.

Full audio here:

Tom Dienhart is a senior writer for BTN.com. Find all of his work at www.btn.com/tomdienhart, follow Dienhart on Twitter at @BTNTomDienhart, send a question to his weekly mailbag here, and click here to subscribe to his RSS feed.