Big Ten Wrestling Championship | 2018 NCAA Wrestling

Your Guide To The Big Ten Tournament NCAA Qualification Process

Your Guide To The Big Ten Tournament NCAA Qualification Process

There are a total of 80 NCAA automatic qualifying spots up for grabs at the Big Ten Tournament. Here's everything you need to know to follow the action.

Feb 28, 2018 by Andrew Spey
Your Guide To The Big Ten Tournament NCAA Qualification Process

Eighty NCAA automatic qualifying spots are up for grabs at the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Michigan, this weekend. That's almost as many tickets to the big dance as the next two conferences combined. Read on for everything you need to know to follow the toughest wrestling conference in the country as the Big Ten Conference holds its annual tournament.

First, you need to know how to watch. Which is simple; just click the big, bold, underlined words below!

WATCH THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS LIVE!

DATE: March 3-4  | TIME: 10 AM ET | WHERE: Michigan State University

The Big Ten pre-seeds have already been released, and when the brackets are finalized you'll be able to find them on FloArena.

You can see how all the NCAA tournament automatic qualifying (AQ) allocations were distributed here. The exact process by which a committee determines how many qualifying spots each conference gets at each weight class is arcane and impenetrable but effective.

After said impenetrable but good process, the committee decides that between 27 and 29 wrestlers in each weight class have "earned" AQs, and those AQs are then allocated to the appropriate conference. If a conference does not have a wrestler who earned an AQ, it will still a receive a minimum of one AQ per weight.

Those AQs now have to be secured in the tournaments; they are not guaranteed for the wrestlers who "earned" them. For instance, if a conference has three AQs, whoever finishes in the top three in that conference's championship tournament will get an invite to the NCAA Championships whether or not any of those top three wrestlers "earned" that AQ for the conference. This is what's referred to as "stealing" a bid to the NCAAs. 

At the end of all the conference tournaments, the final "at-large" wrestlers will be selected until each weight class has 33 competitors. If a wrestler who earned an AQ does not participate in his conference tournament for any reason, the conference losses that AQ and another at-large selection will be made at that weight class. 

Finding out which wrestlers earned those AQs is beyond my powers. Luckily, friendly sorcerer Britt Malinky has does the computational wizardry and shared the results on his blog here. Thanks, Britt! 

Now for the good stuff. Below is a breakdown of all Big Ten entries by weight class. An "X" will precede each wrestler's name if he earned an AQ for the B1G tournament. We've also included their pre-seeds and top 20 rankings for context. For weights without enough pre-seeds — the Big Ten will only seed past eight competitors if more than eight AQs were earned — we've substituted our Big Ten rankings

125 Pounds (10 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Nick Suriano
SO
Rutgers
1
1
X
Spencer Lee
FR
Iowa
2
3
X
Nathan Tomasello
SR
Ohio State
3
4
X
Sebastian Rivera
FR
Northwestern
4
10
X
Ethan Lizak
JR
Minnesota
5
8
X
Luke Welch
SR
Purdue
6
18
X
Rayvon Foley
FR
Michigan State
7
16
X
Drew Mattin
FR
Michigan
8
11
X
Travis Piotrowski
SO
Illinois
9
19
X
Elijah Oliver
JR
Indiana
10


Mitchell Maginnis
SR
Nebraska
11


Johnny Jimenez
SR
Wisconsin
12


Brandon Cray
FR
Maryland
13


Carson Kuhn
SR
Penn State
14


Ten AQs for just 14 schools is a lot, but only one of those AQ earners isn't in the top 20, so it's still going to be a dog fight for an NCAA bid. 

133 Pounds (7 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Stevan Micic
SO
Michigan
1
2
X
Luke Pletcher
SO
Ohio State
2
3
X
Mitch McKee
SO
Minnesota
3
12

Jason Renteria
FR
Nebraska
4
17
X
Scott Delvecchio
SR
Rutgers
5
18
X
Corey Keener
SR
Penn State
6

X
Dylan Duncan
FR
Illinois
7

X
Ben Thornton
JR
Purdue
8


Paul Glynn
SO
Iowa
9


Colin Valdiviez
FR
Northwestern
10


Jens Lantz
JR
Wisconsin
11


Garrett Pepple
SO
Indiana
12


Jhared Simmons
JR
Maryland
13


Logan Griffin
SO
Michigan State
14


J-Rent poses a problem for 133. He soundly beat DelVecchio right after coming off a redshirt, but because of his limited action this season he did not earn an AQ for the B1G. Either Renteria or some other earner will be left without an AQ — although still with at-large hopes — after this tourney. 

141 Pounds (8 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Joey McKenna
JR
Ohio State
1
4
X
Nick Lee
FR
Penn State
2
8
X
Mike Carr
FR
Illinois
3
11
X
Chad Red
FR
Nebraska
4
14
X
Nate Limmex
SO
Purdue
5
12
X
Tommy Thorn
JR
Minnesota
6
15
X
Cole Weaver
JR
Indiana
7
13
X
Eli Stickley
SO
Wisconsin
8


Vince Turk
SO
Iowa
9


Sal Profaci
SO
Michigan
10


Ryan Diehl
JR
Maryland
11


Javier Gasca
SR
Michigan State
12


Michael Van Brill
FR
Rutgers
13


Alec McKenna
SO
Northwestern
14


Profaci, Diehl, and Gasca all qualified for the NCAA tournament in the past but failed to earn an AQ for the conference this year. It is going to be a brutal Big Ten tournament for a few 141-pounders.

149 Pounds (9 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Zain Retherford
SR
Penn State
1
1
X
Brandon Sorensen
SR
Iowa
2
2
X
Ryan Deakin
FR
Northwestern
3
7
X
Colton McCrystal
SR
Nebraska
4
10
X
Ke-Shawn Hayes
SO
Ohio State
5
5
X
Eleazar DeLuca
SR
Rutgers
6
11
X
Alfred Bannister
JR
Maryland
7

X
Malik Amine
SR
Michigan
8
18
X
Steve Bleise
JR
Minnesota
9
19

Cole Martin
SO
Wisconsin
10


Jwan Britton
FR
Michigan State
11


Austin Nash
SO
Purdue
12


Eric Barone
SO
Illinois
13


A.J. Raya
FR
Indiana
14


Every ranked wrestler plus last year's NCAA qualifier, Baby J Bannister, earned an AQ.

157 Pounds (8 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Michael Kemerer
SO
Iowa
1
2
X
Jason Nolf
JR
Penn State
1
1
X
Alec Pantaleo
JR
Michigan
3
6
X
Micah Jordan
JR
Ohio State
4
7
X
Tyler Berger
JR
Nebraska
5
10
X
Andrew Crone
SR
Wisconsin
6
16
X
Jake Short
SR
Minnesota
7

X
John Van Brill
JR
Rutgers
8
19

Kyle Langenderfer
SR
Illinois
9


Griffin Parriott
FR
Purdue
10


Jacob Tucker
FR
Michigan State
11


Kyle Cochran
FR
Maryland
12


Shayne Oster
SO
Northwestern
13


Jake Danishek
JR
Indiana
14


If Nolf weighs in and takes the mat and then immediately injury defaults, then the conference keeps the AQ, opening up a spot for someone else and forcing Nolf to rely on an at-large big, which he will definitely get. If Nolf doesn't weigh in then the AQs are reduced to seven. Langenderfer and talented freshmen in Parriott and Tucker are strong contenders for at-large bids even if they don't qualify through the tournament. 

165 Pounds (10 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Isaiah Martinez
SR
Illinois
1
1
X
Alex Marinelli
FR
Iowa
2
2
X
Vincenzo Joseph
SO
Penn State
3
3
X
Richie Lewis
SR
Rutgers
4
5
X
Evan Wick
FR
Wisconsin
5
7
X
Nick Wanzek
SR
Minnesota
6
10
X
Logan Massa
SO
Michigan
7
11
X
Isaiah White
SO
Nebraska
8
12
X
Te'Shan Campbell
JR
Ohio State
9
14
X
Jacob Morrissey
SR
Purdue
10
18

Brendan Burnham
SO
Maryland
11


Bryce Martin
JR
Indiana
12


Mike Sepke
SR
Northwestern
13


Austin Hiles
FR
Michigan State
14


In an absolute buzz saw of a weight class, the Big Ten boasts 10 ranked wrestlers, all whom earned AQs. The chance of someone stealing a bid here is slim.

174 Pounds (7 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Mark Hall
SO
Penn State
1
2
X
Bo Jordan
SR
Ohio State
2
6
X
Myles Amine
SO
Michigan
3
5
X
Dylan Lydy
SO
Purdue
4
11
X
Johnny Sebastian
JR
Northwestern
5

X
Devin Skatzka
SO
Indiana
6

X
Joey Gunther
SO
Iowa
7


Ryan Christensen
JR
Wisconsin
8


Joe Grello
FR
Rutgers
9


Chris Pfarr
SR
Minnesota
10


Logan Ritchie
SO
Michigan State
11


Beau Breske
FR
Nebraska
12


Josh Ugalde
SO
Maryland
13


David Riojas
FR
Illinois
14


The top four contenders are all ranked and should have no trouble qualifying. After that it gets interesting, as very little separates the next six wrestlers with only three remaining AQs.

184 Pounds (8 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Bo Nickal
JR
Penn State
1
1
X
Myles Martin
JR
Ohio State
2
2
X
Domenic Abounader
SR
Michigan
3
4
X
Emery Parker
JR
Illinois
4
7
X
Nick Gravina
JR
Rutgers
5
9
X
Taylor Venz
FR
Nebraska
6
8
X
Ricky Robertson
SR
Wisconsin
7
10
X
Mitch Bowman
JR
Iowa
8
20

Max Lyon
FR
Purdue
9


Mitch Sliga
SR
Northwestern
10


Norman Conley
SO
Indiana
11


Brandon Krone
JR
Minnesota
12


Shwan Shadaia
JR
Michigan State
13


Niko Cappello
FR
Maryland
14


The top eight contenders are all ranked and look relatively secure in their bids, although Bowman will have little margin for error, and no one should take anything for granted in one of the NCAA's most volatile weights. 

197 Pounds (6 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Kollin Moore
SO
Ohio State
1
6
X
Shakur Rasheed
JR
Penn State
2
7
X
Cash Wilcke
SO
Iowa
3
8
X
Kevin Beazley
SR
Michigan
4
14
X
Hunter Ritter
SO
Wisconsin
5

X
Christian Brunner
SO
Purdue
6


Zack Chakonis
SO
Northwestern
7


Eric Schultz
FR
Nebraska
8


David-Brian Whisler
SO
Maryland
9


Andre Lee
JR
Illinois
10


Dylan Anderson
FR
Minnesota
11


Nick May
FR
Michigan State
12


Anthony Messner
SR
Rutgers
13


Jake Kleimola
FR
Indiana
14


Buckle up for 197 and expect a lot of turbulence. Six AQs for only four top 20 wrestlers mitigates some of the suspense, but this weight class is not known for following the script, especially not in the Big Ten.

285 Pounds (7 AQs)

Earned AQ
Name
Class
School
Pre-Seeds
Top 20 Rank
X
Adam Coon
SR
Michigan
1
1
X
Kyle Snyder
SR
Ohio State
2
2
X
Nick Nevills
JR
Penn State
3
3
X
Sam Stoll
JR
Iowa
4
5
X
Youssif Hemida
JR
Maryland
5
9
X
Conan Jennings
JR
Northwestern
6
17
X
Shawn Streck
FR
Purdue
7
18

Rylee Streifel
SO
Minnesota
8


David Jensen
SO
Nebraska
9


Razohnn Gross
SR
Rutgers
10


Deuce Rachal
JR
Illinois
11


Christian Rebottaro
FR
Michigan State
12


Fletcher Miller
SR
Indiana
13


Ben Stone
SO
Wisconsin
14


Although all eyes will be on the expected finals rematch of Coon vs. Snyder, there will be plenty of battles in the wrestle-backs worth tuning in for this weekend.

As with the rest of conference tournaments, when an AQ is secured and a ticket to the NCAAs is punched, we'll record the result here

Enjoy this marvelous weekend of wrestling!