Big Ten Wrestling Championship | 2018 NCAA Wrestling

Projecting The Automatic Qualifier Allocations For Every Conference

Projecting The Automatic Qualifier Allocations For Every Conference

Projecting the automatic qualifier allocations from each conference for the 2018 NCAA tournament.

Feb 19, 2018 by Nomad Lobdell
Projecting The Automatic Qualifier Allocations For Every Conference

With the regular season now over, we turn our eyes toward the conference championships and try to figure out how many wrestlers each conference will send to nationals.

The NCAA uses a not-so-simple formula involving a ranking from coaches in each conference, the Rating Percentage Index (or RPI), and plain old winning percentage to determine the automatic qualifier allocations. To the best of our abilities, we tried to use those three criteria to determine how many spots are up for grabs at each conference tournament.

Remember, each weight is different for every conference, and each tournament will at least have its champion be an automatic qualifier. There are a minimum of four wild cards reserved for each weight, meaning 29 is the maximum number of allocations any one weight can have heading into the NCAA tournament.

The overwhelming majority of information for this article comes from page 13 of the "pre-championships manual," which is publicly available HERE.

On to our preliminary numbers, which you can and should double check when the NCAA releases the actual allocations on Thursday. We also posted last year's numbers.

125 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
125
Big Ten
10
7
125
EIWA
22
125
Big 12
6
4
125
ACC
2
3
125
MAC
2
5
125
EWL
2
3
125
Pac-12
41
125
SoCon
1
3

Commentary: As you will see throughout all the weights, the departure of Northern Iowa from the Big 12 to the MAC played a big part in the shifting of allocations from 2017 to 2018. One of the "last men in" was Nathan Tomasello, who wrestled his eighth match on Sunday, meaning he had enough matches to qualify his winning percentage.

133 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
133
Big Ten
79
133
EIWA
3
4
133
Big 12
44
133
ACC
5
2
133
MAC
4
6
133
EWL
3
2
133
Pac-12
2
1
133
SoCon
1
1

Commentary: How about the ACC? All-American Jack Mueller carries the torch, but the conference's depth is shown in Dom Forys, Tariq Wilson, Dennis Gustafson, and Zach Sherman. In the EIWA, Penn entering Gianni Ghione at 133 could mean that the conference gets a fourth wrestler into NCAAs, which could cost the EWL one of its spots.

141 Pounds

Weight

Conference
Allocation
Last
141
Big Ten
9
9
141
EIWA
4
5
141
Big 12
3
4
141
ACC
4
3
141
MAC
3
2
141
EWL
4
2
141
Pac-12
1
3
141
SoCon
1
1

Commentary: We've talked about the Big Ten being "down" this year at 141, but, like the rest of this weight, it's just evenly distributed.

149 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
149
Big Ten
7
6
149
EIWA
3
3
149
Big 12
5
4
149
ACC
4
3
149
MAC
2
5
149
EWL
1
2
149
Pac-12
1
3
149
SoCon
1
1

Commentary: There is not a minimum number of automatic qualifiers, and 149 has the fewest of any weight in our projection. If our number of 24 holds, it will be the fewest for any weight since 125 had the same amount in 2015.

157 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
157
Big Ten
8
9
157
EIWA
5
3
157
Big 12
3
3
157
ACC
4
4
157
MAC
2
2
157
EWL
2
1
157
Pac-12
3
2
157
SoCon
1
2

Commentary: Jason Nolf is the reason wild cards exist. If Penn State elects to go the "Suriano route" like last year at 125, Nolf has to weigh in, step on the mat for one second and injury default. At that time, he can medically forfeit out and receive a wild card. The key is weighing in and stepping on the mat, as we learned at this weight last year with the Jordan Kutler situation.

165 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
165
Big Ten
10
7
165
EIWA
6
4
165
Big 12
6
5
165
ACC
2
2
165
MAC
1
3
165
EWL
2
2
165
Pac-12
1
2
165
SoCon
1
1

Commentary: There will be first-round matchups at Big Tens that will feature ranked guys. This is the deepest weight in any conference this year.

174 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
174
Big Ten
8
9
174
EIWA
6
6
174
Big 12
5
3
174
ACC
3
3
174
MAC
3
3
174
EWL
1
1
174
Pac-12
2
2
174
SoCon
1
1

Commentary: The main thing coming out of this weekend is, who will get the #1 seed: Mark Hall or Zahid Valencia?

184 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
184
Big Ten
8
9
184
EIWA
7
7
184
Big 12
3
2
184
ACC
3
2
184
MAC
2
3
184
EWL
3
1
184
Pac-12
1
1
184
SoCon
2
3

Commentary: The EIWA is sneaky good at 184, which means the seventh-place match is a must-watch.

197 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
197
Big Ten
6
7
197
EIWA
6
4
197
Big 12
3
5
197
ACC
3
2
197
MAC
3
4
197
EWL
1
1
197
Pac-12
4
3
197
SoCon
2
1

Commentary: Kollin Moore lost again, and one of the guys who beat him might not even wrestle in the conference tournament. If you tell us you know what's going to happen at 197, we're going to assume you're lying.

285 Pounds

Weight
Conference
Allocation
Last
285
Big Ten
7
5
285
EIWA
54
285
Big 12
3
4
285
ACC
55
285
MAC
3
3
285
EWL
2
2
285
Pac-12
33
285
SoCon
1
3

Commentary: Once again, the ACC shows off its heavyweight depth.

So there you have it, the 283 automatic qualifier allocations, arranged by conference and weight class. Now we just need to figure out who the 47 wild-card spots will go to.


Automatic Qualifiers By Conference

  1. Big Ten: 81
  2. EIWA: 48
  3. Big 12: 40
  4. ACC: 35
  5. MAC: 25
  6. Pac-12: 21
  7. EWL: 21
  8. SoCon: 12