How do our top 20 rankings compare with the seeds assigned for the 2018 NCAA Championships? We go weight class by weight class to compare and contrast before the tournament gets underway Thursday in Cleveland. 

In the tables below, we list the NCAA seed first, then our ranking, and finally how much the ranking differs from the seed. So if the last column is a big positive number, it means we rank the wrestler a lot better than his seed would indicate, and if it's a large negative number, it means his seed is better than what our rankings say. Lastly, "UR" stands for "unranked" and "US" stands for "unseeded."

Have questions about the seeds? So did Willie! Check out his thoughts here!

NCAA Draw Analysis: Penn State | Ohio State | Missouri

125 Pounds

Nick Suriano defaulting out of the Big Ten Tournament likely cost him a higher seed. Had he won the tournament he would have probably earned the #2 seed. After the top four 125ers, Flo and the NCAA agree on the next six. 

We're not quite as high on Sean Rusell as the committee is, conversely we have Ryan Millhof ranked four spots better than his seed. Jay Schwarm is the only 125-pounder to receive a seed who didn't crack our top 20, though he's right on the bubble for what it's worth. 

Rayvon Foley is the highest-ranked 125er to not receive a seed, but he's #16 nationally so it's not a big shock that he didn't get a seed.  

133 Pounds

The seeding committee really likes what John Erneste did this season, whereas we felt that there were 11 guys who had better resumes this season. Although, we would not be surprised in the slightest if Erneste outperformed his ranking. 

We have Korbin Myers on the 133-pound top 20 bubble, whereas the NCAA pegs him as the 14th seed. Here again, we would not be surprised if Myers made a deeper run in the tournament than his lack of ranking would suggest. 

Dylan Duncan is the highest-ranked wrestler to not receive a seed, but like Foley at 125, he's close to the seeding limit at #14.

141 Pounds

We're dead on for the first six 141-pounders, which is actually rather astonishing when you think about what went on at the top tier of this weight class this year. The next six are all both ranked and seeded, just in a little different order. Luke Karam and Nic Gil are on the top 20 bubble but earned the #13 and #14 seeds, respectively. That's a small surprise but both wrestlers have spent time in the top 20 this season.

Chad Red is the biggest seed snub according to our rankings. It's not a grave injustice as Red checks in at #13 nationally, but one would think Red did enough to earn himself a seed, at least in the teens somewhere.

149 Pounds

We agree with the NCAA for the first three seeds and are only one or two spots away on the next seven wrestlers. We think a little more highly of Matt Kolodzik than his #11 seed would suggest, but after that, it's back to more or less agreeing for the rest of the seeds. 

As the #16 in the top 20 Steve Bleise just missed out on a seed, but considering Baby J Bannister outplaced him at Big Tens it's not hard to see where the committee was coming from. 

157 Pounds

Defaulting out of the Big Tens likely cost Jason Nolf a higher seed, although he also still would have had an official loss when he injury defaulted against John Van Brill. That official win probably also boosted Van Brill into a seed when we have him just outside the top 20.

We've got Markus Scheidel and Tyler Berger more than a few spots lower in the rankings than their seeds. Scheidel does have a sterling 24-2 record going for him, and Berger may have been inconsistent but does have two wins over Archie Colgan this season.

Colin Heffernan and Kennedy Monday represent the biggest seeding snubs, but this weight class has been all over the map this season, so we're not surprised by the comparatively large degree of variance here. 

165 Pounds

It's hard to explain Chad Walsh getting seeded five spots ahead of Chance Marsteller when the two split matches these season. Evan Wick also doesn't get as much credit from the NCAAs for beating Logan Massa at Big Tens than he does with us. However, the top 12 of 165 pounds are all so incredibly talented and very little separates one wrestler from another. As such there would be questions no matter how the seeds shook out. 

The discrepancies are small the rest of the way. Andrew Fogarty is the highest-ranked unseeded wrestler, but as the 16th-ranked 165er, it's not too surprising he missed getting a seed.

174 Pounds

It's pretty easy to defend Daniel Lewis as the #3 seed when he sports an undefeated record going into the tournament. We like Jordan Kutler's quality wins better, but it's tough to argue either way. What is more surprising is Forrest Przybysz's #12 seed when we have him on the 174-pound top 20 bubble. However, the SoCon champ does have several wins over national qualifiers and a deep run in the tournament would not be a shocker. 

We expected higher seeds for Dylan Lydy and Christian Brucki, but they aren't too far off their rankings. Finally, 16th-ranked Hunter Bolen is the only seed snub, and it is of the mildest variety at that.

184 Pounds

Pete Renda getting seeded ahead of Dom Abounader isn't very surprising, and considering the craziness that went on in this weight class this season, it's actually surprising that the seeds and rankings don't differ more than they do. 

Michael Coleman and Mitch Bowman are minor seed snubs as the #14- and #15-ranked 184-pounders, respectively, but overall there's not much to comment on besides just a shrug to say, "Yeah, 184 was wild this year."

197 Pounds

We all know Kollin Moore is capable of winning a national title, it's just that we like the resumes of four other 197-pounders slightly better. Still, the top seven are separated by razor-thin margins, so it's tough to get mad at any of those seeds. Preston Weigel is the only guy ranked in the top seven who didn't get a top seven seed, and his lack of matches due to injuries probably hurt him in the NCAA's figuring of things. 

There's more variance as we go down the rankings, but if 184 was a wild weight class, 197 is straight out of the asylum. It's actually weirder that Stephen Loiseau and Jeric Kasunic share the same seed and rank, at #12 and #13, respectively, than that any of the other wrestlers' seeds and rankings don't match.

Daniel Chaid and Jake Smith get seed snubs, but like just about every snub in all the other weights, it's very mild, as they're ranked #15 and #16, respectively. 

285 Pounds

We are in total agreement for the top 10 heavies. The seeds and rankings are pretty similar the rest of the way too. No one's seed differs from his ranking by more than three, as 285 is typically the most stable and predictable of all the weight classes.

Conan Jennings, however, is on the received end of one of the bigger seed snubs of the tournament, getting a #13 rank but no seed from the NCAA. Other than that, we all mostly agree.

It's worth keeping in mind that neither rankings nor seeds are predictions but rather the result of an objective (we hope!) process. Neither process is perfect and this entire exercise is for entertainment purposes only. We wouldn't mind in the slightest if our rankings or the seeds were to be "proven wrong." In fact, that would only make the tournament so much more exciting, so here's to being proven wrong!