March 1 Rankings feature top Big Ten, Big 12 meetings this weekend
NEWTON, Iowa — The final two 2021 NCAA-qualifying tournaments — the Big Ten and the Big 12 Championships — will be held this weekend and will feature many of the highest-ranked teams and individuals who appear in WIN Magazine’s March 1 national rankings.
The Big Ten tournament, which will be held in State College, Pa., Saturday and Sunday, features WIN’s top-3 ranked teams — Iowa, Penn State and Nebraska — and 73 ranked wrestlers, including 32 competitors who rank in the Top 8 of their weight class.
Among those are 14 of the top-2 rated wrestlers, including four of Iowa’s 10 ranked wrestlers — Spencer Lee (125), Jaydin Eierman (133), Alex Marinelli (165) and Michael Kemerer (174) — who are top-ranked and helping lead Iowa, which has 144 points in this week’s Tournament Power Index.
WIN’s TPI predicts approximately how many NCAA points a team will score in St. Louis, excluding bonus points, based on numbers associated with individual placements/rankings at this point in the season prior to seeds coming out: 20 for 1st, 16 for 2nd, 13.5 for 3rd, 12.5 for 4th, 10 for 5th, 9 for 6th, 6.5 for 7th and 5.5 for 8th. Wrestlers ranked 9–12 earn two points each, followed by 1.5 points for wrestlers ranked 13–16 and 1 point for those ranked 17–20.
Penn State features nine ranked wrestlers, including sophomore Aaron Brooks, who has taken over the top spot at 184 pounds as the Nittany Lions are ranked second with 81.5 TPI points.
Nebraska also features a №1-ranked wrestler — Eric Schultz (197) — among the seven rated Cornhuskers who earned 65.5 points. Meanwhile, both Northwestern — with Ryan Deakin (157) — and Minnesota — with Gable Steveson (Hwt) — also feature a top-ranked wrestler.
Oklahoma State, which ranks fourth with 60 TPI points, is looking to win a ninth consecutive Big 12 championship, which will be held Saturday and Sunday in Tulsa, Okla. The Cowboys feature eight ranked wrestlers, including sophomore Daton Fix, who is №1 at 133 pounds. Another Big 12 team that is looking to challenge OSU is Iowa State, which is ranked 9th nationally with seven ranked wrestlers and 41 points.
These rankings come out after four conference tournaments were held last weekend: №5 NC State topped №7 Virginia Tech for the ACC title, №6 Arizona State won the Pac-12 championship, №11 Missouri won a tenth-straight Mid-American Conference tournament and Appalachian State won the SoCon championship.
