NCAA announces 260 automatic qualifying spots; tourney will have 70 at-large picks

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Updated: February 27, 2015

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has announced that the nine qualifying tournaments for the 2015 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships will produce just 260 automatic qualifiers; down 30 from the previous two seasons.

After all of the qualifying events — beginning this Sunday at the Pac-12 Championships — have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 70 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 11. In both 2013 and 2014, only 40 at-large qualifiers were selected by the NCAA.

One reason for the lower number of automatic spots is that the Big 12 — with just four teams — does not earn an automatic qualifiers. A total of 27 Big 12 wrestlers were among the Top 33 athletes listed in the NCAA’s final RPI.

The following are the nine qualifying tournament, including dates and locations:

ACC March 8 Pittsburgh, Pa.
Big Ten March 7-8 Columbus, Ohio
Big 12 March 7 Ames, Iowa
EIWA March 6-7 Bethlehem, Pa.
EWL March 7 Lawrenceville, N.J.
MAC March 7-8 Columbia, Mo.
Pac 12 March 1 Corvallis, Ore.
SoCon March 7 Asheville, N.C.
WWC (West) March 7 Fargo, N.D.

 

All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers. The at-large selections will be made based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition, qualifying event placement, quality wins, results against common opponents, winning percentage, RPI, coaches ranking and the number of matches contested at that weight class.

Each qualifying tournament was awarded spots per weight class based on current year data. Each wrestler was measured on the following: Division I winning percentage at the weight class, rating percentage index (RPI) and coaches ranking.

For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his qualifying tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class. Each qualifying tournament, with automatic qualifying status, was awarded a minimum of one wrestler per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if they did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds. NCAA tournament spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at the tournament based solely on place-finish.

 

Conference 125 133 141 149 157 165 174 184 197 285 Total
Atlantic Coast Conference 3 3 4 3 2 3 5 2 2 2 29
Big Ten Conference 5 12 8 7 8 8 10 10 9 9 86
Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association 3 3 5 3 7 4 2 5 6 5 43
Eastern Wrestling League 2 2 1 3 2 1 1 2 1 2 17
Mid-American Conference 2 1 3 5 3 4 3 2 6 4 33
Pacific-12 Conference 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 19
Southern Conference 2 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 2 14
West Regional 5 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 19
TOTAL QUALIFIERS 24 25 25 27 27 25 26 26 28 27 260

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