NCAA Announces Qualifier Allocations for Nationals, Updated Rankings

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has announced the qualifier allocations for the 2022 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships as well as the updated NCAA Coaches' Panel Rankings and Rating Percentage Index (RPI).

The Big 12 Conference received the second most qualifying spots of any conference with 58 and a total of three Utah Valley University grapplers are currently ranked.

Second-year freshman 133-pounder Haiden Drury leads the way by being ranked 13th in the nation in the latest coaches poll and 16th on the RPI. Reigning All-American and three-time NCAA qualifier Taylor LaMont is next by being ranked 17th on the coaches ranking, while sophomore 197-pounder Evan Bockman is ranked 25th by the coaches and 30th on the RPI.

Drury leads UVU on the season with a 17-4 record. LaMont currently holds a 6-2 clip and Bockman is 12-7.

The 58 auto qualifier allocations for the Big 12 Conference are as follows: 6 at 125, 6 at 133, 7 at 141, 4 at 149, 6 at 157, 4 at 165, 8 at 174, 4 at 184, 7 at 197, and 6 at 285. The qualifying spots will be up for grabs at the 2022 Big 12 Championships that will take place next weekend, March 5-6, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. UVU will send 10 grapplers to wrestle it out at next week's Big 12 Championship (one at every weight class).

The Big Ten Conference led the way with 88 auto spots. The EIWA had the third most with 42, while the ACC had 39, the Pac-12 23, the MAC 22, and the Southern claimed 15.

Each qualifying tournament was awarded pre-allocations to the national tournament based on regular season performance by conference wrestlers through February 20. The pre-allocations are determined using a sliding scale of a .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches' rank and top 30 ratings percentage index (RPI) with a maximum of 29 pre-allocations per weight class.

For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class. Each conference was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid 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 championship spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at conference tournaments based solely on place-finish.

After all the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 43 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 8, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 6 p.m. ET on March 9. All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.

The coaches' rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the seven conference. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have five Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days.

The RPI is a calculation that consists of three factors: winning percentage, opponent winning percentage (strength of schedule) and opponent's opponent winning percentage (opponent's strength of schedule). Only matches against Division I opponents at the designated weight class count towards the RPI and a wrestler needs to have wrestled 15 matches to be ranked.

The coaches' ranking and RPI are two of several criteria that will be evaluated during the at-large selection and seeding process along with head-to-head competition, quality wins, conference tournament placement, results versus common opponents and win percentage.

The 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships will be held March 17-19 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Last season, UVU crowned a pair of All-Americans in LaMont and senior 165-pounder Demetrius Romero.