The 2025 NCAA wrestling conference tournaments start next week, but, as always, there's more than just pride on the line for the nearly 700+ starting varsity athletes competing across those eight tournaments. Each conference is also designated a set number of automatic qualifying spots for the NCAA tournament, and any wrestler who finishes high enough on the podium to secure one of those spots books himself a direct ticket to Philadelphia to compete for a national title. Wrestlers who fail to secure an auto-qualifying spot through their conference finish will vie for one of the 43 at-large bids.
Athletes earned allocation spots for their conference based on their winning percentage, rank in the coaches poll and RPI. The RPI calculations take into consideration winning percentage as well, along with opponent winning percentage and opponent opponent's winning percentage as a way to measure strength of schedule. Wrestlers who earned an allocation spot for their weight class in their conference ahead of the tournament do not own that spot. They still have to wrestle to their ranking and finish within the allocated placement spot at the conference tournament to earn their ticket to nationals.
Here's what the allocation spots tell us about the strength of each conference, the best path to qualify for the tournament and key weights to watch come conference weekend:
First, the complete allocation table:
| Conference | 125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 184 | 197 | 285 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 38 |
| Big 12 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 61 |
| Big Ten | 9 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 87 |
| EIWA | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 22 |
| Ivy League | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 26 |
| MAC | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 23 |
| PAC-12 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 17 |
| SOCON | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 13 |
| Pre-Allocations | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 287 |
| At-Large | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 43 |
Now, the takeaways:
The Big Ten earned the most automatic spots, led by 133, 197 and 285 pounds
The Big Ten led the way in conference allocations, earning a total of 87 spots for 140 wrestlers. The 133, 197 and 285 pound weight classes all earned ten spots, meaning any athlete who finishes above the bottom four has a guaranteed spot at NCAAs.
All of these weights offer intriguing storylines, starting with 133 pounds. This is a deep weight complete with a diversity of styles. Iowa's 2024 NCAA finalist at 125 pounds, Drake Ayala, paces the pack with an undefeated Big Ten record while Illinois All-American Lucas Byrd is ranked one spot below him nationally at No. 4. Last year's Big Ten champ at 125 pounds, Braeden Davis of Penn State, sits at No. 6 nationally, one spot below Maryland's Braxton Brown — both of these athletes will hope to use this tournament as a tune-up before chasing their first All-American honors in Philly. Dylan Shawver, who won this weight class last year for Rutgers against Michigan's Dylan Ragusin (who is out this year with an injury) is currently ranked No. 11 nationally.
At 197 pounds, another Hawk tops the rankings with No. 1 Stephen Buchanan looking for his first Big Ten title after earning All-American honors at Oklahoma and Wyoming. No. 2 Josh Barr of Penn State and No. 3 Jacob Cardenas further demonstrate the depth and elite nature of this weight.
The Big Ten actually has 12 athletes ranked in the Top 33 at 197 pounds according to Intermat, but only the top ten will automatically qualify. Rutgers' John Poznanski, currently ranked No. 22, is likely retired from college wrestling, causing a little rankings disruption and potentially creating space for PJ Casale to compete. Casale is 8-9 on the year and will face an uphill battle to qualify, but, with ten spots, one upset win is likely to get anyone in the weight a spot at nationals.
At heavyweight, the stars shine bright. The weight class is led by none other than Minnesota's two-time NCAA champion Gable Steveson, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist who is currently 11-0 on the year with 100% bonus. He'll be pushed at the conference tournament by No. 2 Greg Kerkvliet, who won the weight class last year and similarly has an undefeated record. All-American Yaraslau Slavikouski of Rutgers, Josh Heindselman of Michigan, All-American Nick Feldman of Ohio State and Luke Luffman of Illinois round out the heavyweights ranked in the Top 10, with Iowa freshman Ben Kueter and Maryland graduate student Seth Nevills right behind at No. 11 and No. 12. A Big Ten athlete has won the heavyweight NCAA title every year since 2016. This year is expected to be similar, given the talent and depth of the weight class this year.
In addition to the weight classes with ten auto-qualifying spots, the Big Ten will also qualify nine athletes at 125 pounds and 165 pounds, eight athletes at 149 pounds, 157 pounds, 174 pounds and 184 pounds and seven athletes at 141 pounds. While 141 pounds could be seen as the weakest weight in the conference on paper, this is the weight with the 2024 defending national champion Jesse Mendez and the 2024 NCAA runner-up Beau Bartlett, who also beat Mendez in a dual this season.
Do not be surprised if the NCAA champion comes from the Big Ten at 141 pounds. The Big is also favored to have an NCAA champ, according to rankings right now, at 125 pounds (Matt Ramos), 157 pounds (Tyler Kasak), 165 pounds (Mitchell Mesenbrink), 184 pounds (Carter Starocci) along with the aforementioned 197 (Stephen Buchanan) and 285-pound (Gable Steveson) weight classes.
The EIWA and the Ivy League combine for fewer automatic qualifying spots than last year
Last season, the EIWA earned 53 spots for 16 teams with starting athletes. This year, the six Ivy League schools — Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, Penn and Cornell — broke off to compete amongst themselves, earning 26 spots while the remaining EIWA schools earned a total of 22 spots to combine for five less spots than last year. Of note, the NCAA allocated just one qualifying spot for EIWA athletes at 133, 149, 157 and 184, while the Ivy League has just one spot at heavyweight.
To further complicate matters, the highest-ranked EIWA wrestler across all weights, Ryan Crookham of Lehigh, is still an uncertainty at 133 pounds. The sophomore Mountain Hawk All-American finished third last year but has not competed since December, so while he holds a 5-0 record, he could potentially be out for the year, likely slotting his teammate Matty Lopes into the lineup to compete for one of the lone spot at the weight class for the conference.
The highest ranked Ivy League wrestler — No. 3 Meyer Shapiro of Cornell at 157 pounds — has also battled injuries this year. Shapiro is 9-1 on the season with his lone loss coming by injury default to Jimmy Harrington of Harvard. His toughest test at the weight class in the conference will be 2024 NCAA qualifier Jude Swisher of Penn, who is currently ranked No. 20 with a 22-6 record.
The Ivy League has historically produced strong wrestling, with Cornell finishing second at last year's NCAA tournament with one individual champ and two additional All-Americans. Shapiro could be in the mix to win his weight if he's healthy and bring more hardware back to the Ithaca for the Big Red. First though, he'll look to claim one of the three automatic qualifying spots at the weight to secure his trip to NCAAs and put himself in a position to earn more glory.
The deepest weights in the Ivy League are 141 and 184 with No. 9 All-American CJ Composto of Penn leading the former and No. 6 All-American Chris Foca of Cornell leading the latter. The EIWA, meanwhile, earned four qualifiers at 174 and 197 pounds. Three-time NCAA qualifier Brevin Cassella of Binghamton leads the EIWA at 174 pounds while No. 5 All-American Michael Beard of Lehigh paces the group at 197 pounds.
The SoCon offers the narrowest paths to NCAAs, but the Pac-12 isn't much easier
Much like the splitting of the EIWA and the Ivy League into two conferences, the Pac-12 also faced conference changes this year, with Arizona State leaving for Big 12, and Stanford leaving for the ACC. The conference now hosts just four teams — Little Rock, CSU Bakersfield, Cal Poly and Oregon State — and 17 allocation spots, four more than the conference with the least number of spots: the SoCon.
Only 13 athletes from the SoCon can secure their tickets to NCAAs next week. At seven of the ten weights including 125 pounds, 149 pounds, 157 pounds, 165 pounds, 174 pounds, 184 pounds and 285 pounds, only the winner advances. The Pac-12 has a similar situation at five weights: 141 pounds, 157 pounds, 165 pounds, 174 pounds, 184 pounds and heavyweight.
Finalists in the SoCon will advance to NCAAs at 133, 141 and 197 pounds. The two athletes ranked in the Top 33 at 133 pounds in the SoCon include Gardner-Webb's TK Davis and UT-Chattanooga's Blake Boarman, ranked No. 25 and No. 26 respectively. The 141-pound weight class also has two SoCon athletes ranked back-to-back with No. 21 Shannon Hanna of Campbell holding the slight edge on paper over No. 22 Todd Carter of Gardner-Webb. At 197 pounds, three athletes sit inside the Top 33, with No. 29 Levi Hopkins of Campbell leading the way, followed by No. 30 Carson Floyd and No. 32 Patrick Brophy of The Citadel. If rankings hold, one of those athletes will need a wild card, a stressful position for any wrestler hoping to win over the committee on selection day.
The Pac-12 will qualify three deep at 149 pounds and 197 pounds. Of these two weights, 197 pounds holds the greatest intrigue with NCAA champion AJ Ferrari of Cal State Bakersfield and All-Americans Stephen Little of Little Rock and Trey Munoz of Oregon State all in the mix.
The MAC this year will be deeper than both the Pac-12 and the SoCon, with just three weights — 125, 141 and 197 pounds — earning one allocation spot. The conference will have three qualifiers at 133, 149 pounds, 157 pounds, 174 pounds, 184 pounds and heavyweight for a total of 23 allocations, 10 more than the SoCon and six more than the Pac-12.
The ACC and Big 12 benefited from Stanford, Arizona State's realignment
While conference realignment hit the Pac-12 hard, the ACC and the Big 12 benefited with increased allocations from the moves of Stanford to the ACC and Arizona State to the Big 12.
The ACC, for example, earned 28 allocations last year compared to 38 this year, and while Stanford's eight ranked athletes can be thanked for that increase, this change in allocation is also reflected by the general increase of talent in this conference. This year, NC State, Virginia Tech and North Carolina all shared the regular season dual title after NC State lost to Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech lost to North Carolina and North Carolina lost to NC State. These three teams all return All-Americans from last season and will now look to get as many athletes in their lineup as possible to Philly to battle for a top-ten finish.
Beyond the overall allocations in the ACC though, the number of spots per weight, particularly at 165 and 285 pounds, is also key for the ACC. Last year, the conference earned two spots in each of those weights. This year, the conference has five spots at both weights. Only two starters in the conference will be unable to earn an auto-qualifying spot for NCAAs from those weights, but one of those starters could be a ranked wrestler. The ACC has six athletes ranked in the Top 33 at both 165 pounds and 285 pounds. The ranked athletes at 165 pounds fighting for their spot include No. 13 Hunter Garvin, No. 20 Nick Hamilton, No. 28 Derek Fields, No. 29 Aidan Wallace, No. 32 Jared Keslar and No. 33 Mac Church. At 285 pounds, the athletes competing for the five spots include No. 4 Isaac Trumble, No. 13 Jimmy Mullen, No. 14 Dayton Pitzer, No. 26 Peter Ming, No. 27 Connor Barket and No. 30 Nolan Neves as well as Gabe Christenson. Trumble has put separation between himself and the field, but the battle for those spots will come down to who else can compete under the brightest lights of the season thus far.
Like the ACC, the Big 12 also increased its allocations compared to 2024, moving from 57 to 61. Five weights in the Big 12 offer seven spots, including two weights — 125 pounds and 184 pounds — where the returning national champion comes from the Big 12. Arizona State's No. 2 Richie Figueroa paces his conference at the lighter of those two weights followed closely by No. 3 Troy Spratley of Oklahoma State. Last year, Figueroa won Pac-12s, but this year, his success benefits the Big 12, essentially moving his qualification allocation from one conference to another and taking the Big 12 from six to seven allocation spots.
At 184 pounds, the Big 12 has another returning champion in Parker Keckeisen, an athlete who will likely continue his one-sided winning rivalry with Oklahoma State's All-American No. 3 Dustin Plott at the Big 12 tournament. While the conference does have seven total spots, three more than last year, nine athletes are currently ranked at the weight. The two lowest ranked athletes of those nine include No. 30 Eddie Neitenbach of Wyoming and No. 31 Aidan Brenot of North Dakota State. For them to qualify for their first NCAA tournaments, they'll need to pull off an upset in their loaded brackets.
The two toughest weights to qualify out of the Big 12 are the two heaviest weights: 197 pounds and 285 pounds. These are weights headlined by the Big Ten instead, though Oklahoma State's Wyatt Hendrickson will be a favorite to win the Big 12 title at 285 pounds and bring Oklahoma State key team points. Seven heavyweights are ranked in this conference though, including Hendrickson at No. 3, All-American Cohlton Schultz at No. 6 (who competed in the Pac-12 last year), Lance Runyon of Northern Iowa, No. 22 Jarrett Stoner of Missouri, No. 23 Juan Mora of Oklahoma, No. 32 Daniel Herrera of Iowa State and No. 33 Luke Rasmussen of South Dakota State. The four automatic spots available to these seven ranked wrestlers and the rest of the field is one less than last year.
The allocation spots always create a number of fun storylines leading up to the conference tournament, but the surest way to qualify for NCAAs regardless of your conference or weight class is to win the weight. All winners advance. Beyond that, qualification becomes a numbers game.
🤼♂️ STAY UPDATED: Rankings | Latest videos | Wrestling on B/R
🏆 CHAMPS: History | Format
🎟️ TICKETS: DI wrestling championships
