The annual tradition of holiday wrestling tournaments continues as it does every year with Midlands on December 29th and 30th, followed by the Southern Scuffle on January 1st and 2nd.

Watch the 2020 Southern Scuffle LIVE on Flo

January 1-2 | 10 AM Eastern

Once again we will be splitting up our previews into thirds, and I will be handling the lightweights (125, 133, and 141) for both Midlands and the Scuffle. There are currently 19 ranked wrestlers on tap to compete at McKenzie Arena.

This will be the 17th year of the Scuffle's existence, and nine of them have now been hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The brackets will eventually be on FloArena.

On New Year's Day, the first session will begin at 9AM eastern standard time and the evening will end with the quarterfinals. Action on the second will begin at 9AM with the semifinals and then the placing matches, including the finals, will happen that afternoon.

125 Pounds: 6 Ranked

#4 Nick Piccininni, Oklahoma State

#9 Nic Aguilar, Rutgers

#12 Alex Mackall, Iowa State

#17 Sidney Flores, Air Force

#23 Fabian Gutierrez, Chattanooga

#25 Gabe Townsell, Stanford

Commentary: Much like Pat Glory at Midlands, Pich will be the overwhelming favorite in Chattanooga and looking for his second Scuffle title. His primary competition will come in the form of a few Big 12 opponents, a true freshman, a U23 world team member and a guy wrestling in his home gym.

Last year, the Cowboy senior has beat Rico Montoya 7-2 in the finals. The two-time All-American is 7-1 on the year with six bonus point wins. At the Scuffle, Pich is 9-2 overall with four bonus wins. He is the face of Oklahoma State's program and has been their lightweight anchor for years.

Mackall made the Scuffle semis last year, but hit a hard semi slide to sixth. The Cyclone junior was fifth at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas and his only other loss on the year is to Spencer Lee. Which makes the question for Mackall if he can string together wins on Wednesday and then emerge victorious after weigh-ins on Thursday.

Coach Scott Goodale and his staff have rolled out a majority freshmen lineup during this transition season, including Aguilar at 125. The California native shares the same loss as Pich, to Glory, but has otherwise picked up 11 victories so far, nearly half of which are over ranked foes.

Flores has made three tournament finals thus far, but obviously nothing the caliber of a Scuffle. The Air Force sophomore has no fear of diving under anyone and testing his opponent's ability to leg pass properly. Gutierrez came in as the three seed, but failed to place, though this time he's not in the middle of a roster battle.

Gabe Townsell was at Senior Nationals, so hopefully he is still entered this weekend. The three-time national qualifier is just 0-1 on the year, falling to Joe Manchio in his first match back from competing at U23 worlds.

No longer ranked but he was entering the year is Jakob Camacho of NC State, who was third here last year. Another redshirt freshman who spent some time ranked is Jace Koelzer of Northern Colorado.

True freshman Logan Heil of Cleveland State will look to follow in his brother's footsteps. Luke Werner is a returning fourth for Lock Haven.

Nomad's Picks: 1) Piccininni, OKST  2) Mackall, ISU  3) Camacho, NCST  4) Flores, Air Force

133 Pounds: 6 Ranked

#5 Micky Phillippi, Pittsburgh

#8 Cam Sykora, North Dakota State

#13 Sammy Alvarez, Rutgers

#14 Mosha Schwartz, Northern Colorado

#20 Todd Small, Iowa State

#23 Devan Turner, Oregon State

Commentary: We're unsure about Sykora, who missed CKLV. The Bison senior would be the main competition for Phillippi, who went 2-2 as a freshman in 2017 when he was still at Virginia.

Phillippi entered NCAAs as the four seed with just two losses but failed to place. He picked up right where he left off, notching four ranked wins already, plus another two over Quinn Kinner who was ranked earlier this season. None of those wrestlers will be in the field here though, but the Panther should present some issues to these true freshmen with his top work.

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If Sykora makes his return, you can pencil him in for at least one tech. All three of his wins on the year are tech falls and he has 40 in his career. This will be Sykora's first trip to Chattanooga, as NDSU hasn't competed at the Scuffle since he's been there.

Your three and four seeds could wind up being true freshmen, both of whom were originally slated to be 25 pounders. Sammy Alvarez committed to NC State, but wound up transferring before the start of the school year. He was always small in high school, and before it was confirmed Nick Suriano was taking an Olympic Redshirt their 125 spot was open. But Aguilar took hold of that and Alvarez won Journeymen, and has stayed in the Top-15.

Mosha Schwartz nearly knocked off Montorie Bridges at CKLV, and rebounded from that round of 16 loss to finish fifth. Hopefully we also get Theorius Robison in this bracket, who defeated Bridges at the Cowboy Open to start the year. Northern Colorado is young and Coach Nickerson knows his lightweights are impatient to get results and not just show potential.

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Todd (not) Small has filled in well for Austin Gomez while he recovers from injuries and gets down to weight. Hopefully Gomez is able to return for this, or just sometime at all this year, but if not Small will no doubt be a qualifier who can win some matches for the Cyclones at NCAAs.

Devan Turner has been floating under the radar a little, but the national qualifier is probably Oregon State's best wrestler right now. This will be his fourth tournament on the year, having already wrestled in the Mountaineer Invitational, the Navy Classic, and the Reno Tournament of Champions this season.

Nomad's Picks: 1) Phillippi, Pitt  2) Sykora, NDSU  3) Schwartz, Northern Colorado  4) Alvarez, Rutgers

141 Pounds: 7 Ranked

#5 Ian Parker, Iowa State

#11 Real Woods, Stanford

#13 Tariq Wilson, NC State

#15 Cole Matthews, Pittsburgh

#18 Kyle Shoop, Lock Haven

#21 Evan Cheek, Cleveland State

#22 Lenny Petersen, Air Force

Commentary: A pretty wide open weight here, where any of about five guys could realistically be on top of the podium Thursday night. Ian Parker comes in the highest ranked after his fifth place finish in Vegas. A year ago, he made the quarterfinals here before having to injury default out, so we're not sure how high the four seed would have placed.

Similarly, Kaid Brock couldn't wrestle in the quarters, which benefitted Real Woods. Then on his redshirt for Stanford, Woods beat Nick Gil in the semis before giving Nick Lee a match in the finals. His only loss on the year was in overtime to top ranked Luke Pletcher, so this should be his first opportunity to cement himself as an All-American threat.

Tariq Wilson started off with six bonus wins in his first seven matches, but has lost twice and earned just one major since then. Whatever the adjustments are needed, this hasn't quite been the same Tariq we saw at 133, but of course he wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire during the first semester of his third place freshman season.

Cole Matthews placed seventh at the Scuffle during his redshirt season, and is now Pitt's starter at 141. He took the fresh/soph division of the MSU Open, so this will be his only simulation for NCAAs. Although he'll still have the conference dual portion to go through, beating or outplacing Tariq has to be at least part of the goal for this event.

Kyle Shoop matched his seed with a fifth place finish here a year ago, falling to Nick Lee and Cam Kelly. The Lock Haven All-American has dipped from sixth in the preseason to #18 right now and has just one tech coming into the Scuffle as opposed to the nine he had entering last January.

Cheek has just one loss thus far after taking a redshirt last year. The 2018 NCAA qualifier will have a busy dual schedule in the second semester now that the EWL has merged with the MAC, so he made sure to get a bunch of tournaments in, as this will be his fifth of the year. Petersen appears to be reaching qualifier level for Air Force in his junior year as a Falcon.

What we're waiting on is what Oklahoma State does. Dusty Hone has wrestled every dual, but Kaden Gfeller may be coming back. If not, OKST head coach John Smith said we may not see him again this season. Alternatively, Kaid Brock may be on his way back from an ACL injury. Would he go 141 like he did last year, or back down to 133 where he was an All-American?

Nomad's Picks: 1) Woods, Stanford  2) Parker, ISU  3) Shoop, LHU  4) Wilson, NCST