The top wrestlers in the nation's strongest conference are set to battle for titles and NCAA bids at the 2018 Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Michigan, this weekend.

The first session of the two-day tournament starts at 10 AM ET on Saturday, March 3, with the top two seeds at each weight getting first round byes. The pre-seeds can be found here.

We are running previews for every weight class, beginning with the lightweights at 125lb, 133lb, and 141lb.

For each weight, we show the automatic qualifier allocations available for the NCAA tournament, as well as the pre-seeds. We finish each weight with predictions for the top four finishers.

WATCH THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT LIVE | SATURDAY, 10 AM EASTERN

125 Pounds: 10 Allocations

1. Nick Suriano, Rutgers
2. Spencer Lee, Iowa 
3. Nathan Tomasello, Ohio State
4. Sebastian Rivera, Northwestern
5. Ethan Lizak, Minnesota
6. Luke Welch, Purdue
7. RayVon Foley, Michigan State
8. Drew Mattin, Michigan
9. Travis Piotrowski, Illinois
10. Elijah Oliver, Indiana
11. Mitchell Maginnis, Nebraska
12. Johnny Jimenez, Wisconsin
13. Brandon Cray, Maryland
14. Carson Kuhn, Penn State

With 10 guys heading to NCAAs, this weight will seed every entry. It will feature nine guys who were ranked in the top 20 at the end of the regular season.

At Midlands, we thought the wait was finally over to see Spencer Lee vs. Nick Suriano — a matchup over four years in the making. But then Ronnie Bresser upset Lee at the tournament, and a week later Nathan Tomasello didn’t wrestle against Rutgers, making Suriano the prohibitive favorite to be the top seed at Big Tens. However, Suriano missed the last four duals of the season, and it is unclear if he’ll be at 100 percent for the conference tournament.

Aside from missing his two opportunities at Suriano, Lee ran the gauntlet this year, beating Tomasello, Sebastian Rivera, and Ethan Lizak. He might be the best 125lb wrestler from top in the country and can definitely replicate his win over Tomasello with the same game plan.

Nathan Tomasello, OSU vs. Spencer Lee, Iowa:

The Buckeyes senior has just seven losses in his college career, with only one in each of the last three seasons. He scored the only takedown against Lee when they wrestled in the dual on January 21 and will likely need to take Lee down twice or more in order to win the rematch in the semifinals on Saturday night. NaTo also gets a rematch from one of the more exciting matches we saw this season, when he’ll see Carson Kuhn right off the bat on Saturday morning. One last note, it's pretty incredible to think that a guy going for his fourth Big Ten title walks into conference weekend as an underdog.

125lb Big Ten Rankings

One match we did not get to see this year will likely happen in the quarterfinals, as returning NCAA finalist Ethan Lizak takes on redshirt freshman Sebastian Rivera. I like Rivera there, and think he finishes fourth right behind Tomasello. As for the final, I think Suriano avoids going under Lee at all costs and wins the takedown battle 2-1.

Nomad’s Picks

1) Nick Suriano 2) Spencer Lee 3) Nathan Tomasello 4) Sebastan Rivera

WATCH THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT LIVE | SATURDAY, 10 AM EASTERN

133 Pounds: 7 Allocations

1. Stevan Micic, Michigan
2. Luke Pletcher, Ohio State
3. Mitchell McKee, Minnesota
4. Jason Renteria, Nebraska
5. Scott DelVecchio, Rutgers
6. Corey Keener, Penn State
7. Dylan Duncan, Illinois
8. Ben Thornton, Purdue

A couple matches to circle on this bracket, the #4/5 seed quarterfinal rematch between true freshman Jason Renteria and redshirt senior Scott DelVecchio, the match that catapulted Renteria into the national rankings. Those seeds mirror our 133lb Big Ten rankings.

Scott DelVecchio, Rutgers vs. Jason Renteria, Nebraska:

The other is the semifinal between Mitch McKee and Luke Pletcher, two sophomores who we did not see battle this year. They met twice during their senior year of high school, with Pletcher winning 7-3 in the Super 32 semis and McKee winning 12-1 in the UWW Junior national freestyle semis.

Outside of a head-scratcher to Austin DeSanto at CKLV, and a loss to Pletcher in Las Vegas that he avenged, Micic has been every bit as good as we thought he would be this year. He won 11 of his last 12 matches by bonus, averaging 4.5 team points per match.

The only surprise from our seed predictions was that Ben Thornton was seeded ahead of Paul Glynn when Glynn has a head-to-head win over Thornton. It's boring, but I like this one to go chalk.

Nomad's Picks

1) Stevan Micic 2) Luke Pletcher 3) Mitchell McKee 4) Jason Renteria

WATCH THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT LIVE | SATURDAY 10, AM EASTERN

141 Pounds: 8 Allocations

1. Joey McKenna, Ohio State
2. Nick Lee, Penn State
3. Mike Carr, Illinois
4. Chad Red, Nebraska
5. Nate Limmex, Purdue
6. Tommy Thorn, Minnesota
7. Cole Weaver, Indiana
8. Eli Stickley, Wisconsin

Of any weight, I expect these pre-seeds to change the most, just because of the amount of strange results which occurred during the season. And it seems like the tournament will be just as unpredictable as the dual season.

141lb Big Ten Rankings

Tommy Thorn was the most unpredictable wrestler at 141 this year, and if pre-seeds hold, he will get a rematch with Mike Carr, one of the higher ranked guys that he beat, along with Joey McKenna.

There seem to be few obstacles in the way of a Joey McKenna vs. Nick Lee final, a match that could factor in huge in the team race. But we should get an interesting Chad Red vs. McKenna match in the semis, a matchup that did not happen this season.

Right now, Red is seeded a guy he lost to this year in Nate Limmex. They could meet in the quarterfinals in what should be yet another great 4/5 matchup.

Chad Red, Nebraska vs. Nate Limmex, Purdue:

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The curveball in the allocations came when only eight spots were awarded, meaning the bottom six guys will now be drawn in randomly instead of the whole field being seeded.

Nomad's Picks

1) Nick Lee 2) Joey McKenna 3) Chad Red 4) Tommy Thorn