Who should be the top seed at 165 pounds for next month's Big Ten championships: Illinois' Isaiah Martinez or Iowa's Alex Marinelli?

The 14 coaching staffs of Big Ten teams have an interesting conundrum on their hands, as both Martinez and Marinelli will enter the conference championships unscathed. Let's lay out their resumes and the arguments for each wrestler's case to be the top seed at Big Tens, which takes place March 3-4 in East Lansing, MI.

The Case For Isaiah Martinez

The two-time NCAA champion and three-time finalist is 9-0 against Big Ten opponents; however, he did not get a chance to wrestle several conference starters who will be seeded.

As you can see, IMar competed against Iowa but did not face Marinelli, wrestled against a Nebraska team without Isaiah White, and competed against a Rutgers squad minus Richie Lewis. However, Martinez also did not wrestle at Midlands.

Ultimately, the Big Ten coaches can do whatever they'd like. Conference seeding is not like NCAA seeding, in that it is not done by an independent and separate committee and can theoretically factor in prior years to break ties. If that is the case, then Martinez's 14-5 win over Marinelli last year at Midlands seals it for the Illini redshirt senior.

Martinez's case rests on prior resume being the tiebreaker, as well as the coaches weighing Big Ten duals heavier than tournaments. The argument there being, if Marinelli had wrestled against Illinois there would be a head-to-head matchup, and conference events should matter more than non-conference events for seeding purposes.

The Case For Alex Marinelli

As a redshirt freshman, "The Bull" has beaten five Big Ten wrestlers ranked in the top 20, compared to Martinez's three ranked wins this season.

A lot of the argument for IMar centers around the fact that Marinelli did not wrestle against Illinois. Another part of that argument is that Richie Lewis did not wrestle against Illinois, despite wrestling fewer than 48 hours earlier against Northwestern, as well as the next weeked against Minnesota.

But remember that one of Marinelli's wins over Lewis was in the semis at Midlands, in which Martinez did not compete. Although there would have been a guaranteed head-to-head if Marinelli had wrestled in the dual on December 1, the Iowa coaches can make the argument that Marinelli won Midlands, while Martinez did not wrestle in the tournament.

Going down the line of wins, Marinelli beat Vincenzo Joseph, a victory that Martinez did not get a chance to achieve, as Illinois and Penn State did not cross paths during the regular season. Similarly, Martinez has a win over Wisconsin's Evan Wick, who did not compete at Midlands and therefore Marinelli did not get a chance to register that win. Likewise, Michigan and Illinois never hit this year, so Martinez did not get to wrestle Logan Massa.

The Verdict

This all comes down to strength of schedule. The situation would be a great time for the coaches to formalize the rules and determine just how much the conference entrant should be penalized for not wrestling in a competition.

As soon as someone brings up that Marinelli missed the Illinois dual, someone else will bring up that Martinez missed Midlands. Also, because the Big Ten sets the dual schedule, things like Joseph wrestling Marinelli in a dual but not Martinez are going to continue happening from now until the end of time.

Below are each guy's results against the currently ranked 165-pounders within the conference.

It is wise to lay out rules about missing competitions, particularly Big Ten duals. However, it is dangerous to set a precedent in seeding about the ability to wrestle someone or not based on schedule.

Ultimately, Marinelli deserves the top seed because his wins over Joseph and Massa are more valuable than IMar's win over Wick. Which means we might see an NCAA finals rematch in the semifinals of the Big Ten conference championships.