Getting into the Chicago regional is all about finishing as the B1G team with the best tournament resume, which due to current rankings coupled with our pair of Purdue losses likely requires two of these three to occur:
1) Winning the regular season B1G outright
2) Winning a share of the regular season B1G, splitting it with a team other than Purdue
3) Reaching the BTT final, playing a team other than Purdue in it
The committee does everything it can to cater geographically to the top 2-3 seeds in each region (some years, even top 4 depending on program) but there are circumstances also that can work at a disadvantage in some ways. Due to this, there's a path to the Chicago region that doesn't involve finishing the B1G season with the #1 B1G resume, but then you're relying much more on happenstance at that point.
Let's use the current AP rankings as de-facto seeding:
#1 overall Gonzaga goes to CA as the CA #1
#2 overall Auburn, geographical oddity, is 750-900 miles away from all 3 other regional sites, but closest to Chicago so for discussion sake, they go to IL as IL #1
#3 overall Arizona goes to TX as the TX #1
#4 overall Kentucky, who might in theory prefer to be the #2 seed in TX, instead winds up as the #1 in PA
#5 overall Purdue now has first crack at region of choice from the #2 seeds, and so they're going to Chicago as the IL #2. Auburn fans will be wildly outnumbered at that #1 vs #2 game if it happens. Is that fair to Auburn? Not necessarily, but the committee doesn't care - they just want a packed arena.
If you need some evidence of how little the committee actually cares about geographic disadvantage for a given #1 seed, you need look no further than the last fully-fan attended tournament we had, in 2019.
Midwest region #1 - UNC, just over a thousand miles from Midwest region host city Kansas City
Midwest region #4 - Kansas, just over ::checks notes:: 40 miles from Midwest region host city Kansas City
So not even a regional final - UNC would've had to deal with that road atmosphere, as a #1 seed, in the Elite Eight! (If KU hadn't been bounced by Auburn in the Sweet 16, which is what ended up happening).
Long story short, the committee is extremely likely to put the team with the best tournament resume from the B1G in the Chicago regional, as a #1 (Purdue can still get this) or a #2/#3 (more realistic for us, UW, maybe MSU) and if it's not us, we're almost certain to be seeded high enough where they can't put us in that same Chicago region with aforementioned B1G team. There's a path there if Purdue slips a bit, ends up as the overall #7 or #8 causing them to wind up a #2 in CA or PA or TX and then we end up as the #3 or #4 in Chicago, but it's much tougher. Ideally, just handle business in the B1G and we have an excellent chance to play in Chicago to reach the Final Four. Which has some, you know, precedent.