Right you are. I guess I was looking too far ahead.
Actually, though, I think if we did manage to win both of those end-of-season games, we would have a good chance of getting the #9 seed and winning our first game in the BTT. If Minnesota won both of those, there is a decent shot that Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois would all have 8-10 conference records. Under the tie breaking procedure described by Selection Sunday the other day, the head to head between those three teams would look like this:
Michigan, 2-1
Minnesota, 1-1
Ilinois, 1-2
That would give Minnesota the #9 seed with a very winnable game against #8 Michigan. Of course, a not very winnable game with Wisconsin would follow.