INDIANAPOLIS >> Michigan ripped off three wins in three days against three ranked teams to claim the Big Ten tournament title and bolster its NCAA Tournament resume.

How much the Wolverines were rewarded for that accomplishment by the men’s basketball selection committee is up for debate.

Not long after cutting down the nets at Gainbridge Fieldhouse following Sunday’s 59-53 championship game win over Wisconsin, Michigan (25-9) found out it will enter March Madness as a No. 5 seed.

As for other top Big Ten teams, Michigan State, which won the conference regular-season title by three games, is a No. 2 seed, Wisconsin is a No. 3 seed, Maryland and Purdue are No. 4 seed, and Oregon is a No. 5.

That raised some eyebrows, considering Michigan finished tied for second in the Big Ten standings with Maryland at 14-6, a game ahead of Wisconsin and Purdue and two games ahead of Oregon. In head-to-head matchups, the Wolverines had a better record against the Badgers (2-0), Boilermakers (2-1) and Ducks (1-0) and split their two games against the Terrapins.

Not to mention, Michigan beat Purdue, Maryland and Wisconsin — three teams ranked in the top 20 — in consecutive days to win the conference tournament leading into Selection Sunday.

That begs the question: Does what happens in the Big Ten tournament even matter?

“Yeah, I think every game matters all year long,” committee chair and North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said on a conference call with reporters after the 68-team field was unveiled. “I think Michigan was a little bit inconsistent in my mind this year as I was watching them play. They had a great year, not quite as consistent as we may have thought. They had some early losses in the nonconference.

“But it’s a tough field. When I looked at this tournament bracket, there are so many teams in the eight and nine (seeds) that have won national championships. We’ve got Hall of Fame coaches. This is a really, really competitive field, and we think we were very fair to Michigan’s seeding.”

Cunningham added that the selection committee had two contingency brackets based on the outcome of Sunday’s game between Michigan and Wisconsin.

“We actually moved Michigan up on the seed list on the contingency that they won,” he said. “We also scrubbed Wisconsin. Should they have won, we had them in a different position.”

There’s a multitude of stats, rankings, data points and metrics that the selection committee considers during the selection, seeding and bracketing process. And based on Michigan’s body of work, it had a case for a higher seed when compared to other Big Ten teams.

For example, Michigan has 12 Quad-1 wins heading into the Big Dance. Only three teams have more: Auburn (16), Houston (14) and Michigan State (13).

The Wolverines have more true road wins (seven) than Wisconsin (six), Maryland (five) and Purdue (five). They played fewer Quad-4 games (two) than Maryland (eight), Wisconsin (six), Purdue (four) and Oregon (three).

According to KenPom, Michigan’s strength of schedule rating is No. 13 in the nation, trailing only Illinois (No. 7) and Purdue (No. 9) in the Big Ten, and its nonconference strength of schedule is ranked No. 75, behind Purdue (No. 18) and Oregon (No. 65). All three of Michigan’s nonconference losses were at neutral sites by two points or fewer and two of them were against NCAA Tournament teams Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Another analytics site, BartTorvik, has a Wins Above Bubble rating that measures a team’s extra wins beyond what a typical bubble team would have against its schedule. Michigan ranks ninth in the nation in that category (plus-6.2), a spot behind Michigan State (plus-7.8) and a spot above Wisconsin (plus-5.9).

Still, Michigan ended up at No. 17 on the overall seed list, as the top No. 5 seed. Michigan State is seventh overall, Wisconsin 12th, Purdue 14th, Maryland 15th and Oregon 19th on that list.

Interestingly, Michigan and Michigan State were both placed in the South Region, meaning the two rivals could possibly meet in the Elite Eight. Cunningham said the selection committee generally tries to bracket teams based on geography but having 14 SEC teams in the field put a wrinkle in that.

“We had to make sure that we didn’t have too many of the SEC teams playing each other early, so we kept all of the teams on the same seed line,” Cunningham said. “We were paying a little bit more attention to that distribution and a little bit less on geography.”

Given where other Big Ten teams ended up in the bracket, Michigan coach Dusty May said the Wolverines will have “a little bit of extra edge” when they open NCAA Tournament play against UC-San Diego at 10 p.m. Thursday in Denver.

But the way May sees it, matchups and health are more important than whatever seed a team receives.

“We control what we can control,” May said. “We’re extremely excited to go to an amazing city. Just very grateful that this team can continue playing and we have another opportunity in postseason play.”