2016 Big Ten Wrestling Tournament Pre Seeds Released

Today the Big Ten released its pre-seeds for this weekend's conference championship tournament at Iowa's venerable Carver Hawkeye Arena.  The few questions we had remaining have mostly been answered.  Let's jump into the pre-seeds and what they mean for our No.1 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions.

Hold On - I'm New To Wrestling

New to wrestling?  Here's what you need to know.

• First things first: welcome to wrestling.  It's a lot of fun.
• Next, Penn State just dominated the regular season, outscoring opponents 548 - 132.  That's pretty good.
• PSU has been ranked No.1 all season long, actually.
• And they won the inaugural Dual Championship Series in convincing fashion.  Think of that as the regular season championship.
• But now that it's March, wrestling switches to the post-season and individual tournaments.  First up are conference championships.  Ours is the Big Ten.
• Last week, the NCAA awarded automatic bids to NCAAs.  "7" bids at 125lbs means our Penn Stater has to finish within the top-7 at Big Tens to earn the automatic spot at NCAAs.
• How did the NCAA decide the Big Ten got 7 bids?  It's a long and complicated process.  But trust us - it works, and it's fair.
• What happens if our Penn Stater doesn't get one of the automatic bids at his weight class?  He has to wait out the NCAA's "at-large" selection.  Meaning, it's no longer in his control - his fate is decided by gray-haired people on a conference call.  Not fun.
• So, uh...what are "pre-seeds"?  It's the conference's first pass at seeding the wrestlers for Big Tens.  On or around Thursday of this week, the 14 Big Ten wrestling coaches will meet, at Iowa (since that's where the conference tournament is being held), and argue about these pre-seeds.  On Friday, the final brackets - with finalized seeds - are released.  So...expect some movement from these "pre-seeds", but typically, not a whole lot.  You won't see some wrestler pre-seeded 1st fall to 4th, or vice versa.  One, maybe two spots is about it - and not a whole lot of that.
• Good?  Good.  Let's take a look at each of our 10 Nittany Lions.

Here's An Empty Bracket

What happens if the 7-seed loses to the 2-seed in the quarterfinals?  Who does the 7-seed face next in the wrestlebacks?  Glad you asked.  Here's what an empty bracket - both halves - looks like.  The 7-seed loses to the 2-seed in bout "L", and falls to the wrestlebacks, where he'll face the winner of "Loser of A vs. Loser of B".

125 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 7

1. Nathan Tomasello, OSU

2. Thomas Gilman, IOWA

3. Nico Megaludis, PSU

4. Tim Lambert, NEB

5. Elijah Oliver, IND

6. Johnny Jimenez, WIS

7. Conor Youtsey, MICH

8. Sean McCabe, RU

133 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 9

1. Zane Richards, ILL

2. Cory Clark, IOWA

3. Jordan Conaway, PSU

4. Geoff Alexander, MD

5. Eric Montoya, NEB

6. Ryan Taylor, WIS

7. Johnni DiJulius, OSU

8. Rossi Bruno, MICH

9. Dom Malone, NU

10. Anthony Giraldo, RU

11. Luke Welch, PUR

12. Garth Yenter, MSU

13. Alonzo Shepherd, IND

14. Sam Brancale, MINN

149 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 6

1. Zain Retherford, PSU

2. Brandon Sorensen, IOWA

3. Jake Sueflohn, NEB

4. Jason Tsirtsis, NU

5. Alec Pantaleo, MICH

6. Alex Griffin, PUR

7. Andrew Crone, WIS

8. Jake Short, MINN

157 LBS

165 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 6

1. Isaac Jordan, WIS

2. Bo Jordan, OSU

3. Steven Rodrigues, ILL

4. Anthony Perrotti, RU

5. Chad Welch, PUR

6. Austin Wilson, NEB

7. Geno Morelli, PSU

8. Patrick Rhoads, IOWA

174 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 9

1. Bo Nickal, PSU

2. Alex Meyer, IOWA
3. Zach Brunson, ILL
4. Myles Martin, OSU
5. Nathan Jackson, IND
6. Micah Barnes, NEB
7. Nick Wanzek, MINN
8. Ricky Robertson, WIS
9. Phil Bakuckas, RU
10. Mitch Sliga, NU
11. Aaron Calderon, MICH
12. Josh Snook, MD
13. Shane Shadaia, MSU
14. Andrew Hoselton, PUR

184 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 7

1. Dom Abounader, MICH

2. Matt McCutcheon, PSU

3. Sam Brooks, IOWA

4. TJ Dudley, NEB

5. Nick Gravina, RU

6. Kenny Courts, OSU

7. Jeff Koepke, ILL

8. Ryan Christensen, WIS

197 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 6

1. Morgan McIntosh, PSU

2. Brett Pfarr, MINN

3. Nathan Burak, IOWA

4. Max Huntley, MICH

5. Aaron Studebaker, NEB

6. Mark Martin, OSU

7. Hayden Hrymack, RU

8. Jacob Cooper, MSU

285 LBS

NCAA Automatic Bids: 7

1. Adam Coon, MICH

2. Kyle Snyder, OSU

3. Sam Stoll, IOWA

4. Billy Smith, RU

5. Michael Kroells, MINN

6. Collin Jensen, NEB

7. Brooks Black, ILL

8. Nick Nevills, PSU

Overall

These pre-seeds - except for Jimmy - are about what we expected, if not a little bit better than we expected.  If the tournament wrestles exactly to these pre-seeds, here is what the final standings would look like, without bonus points of course.

WT	PSU	Iowa	OhSt	MICH	NEB	ILL
125	12.5	15	19	5.5	11.5	0
133	12.5	15	5.5	4.5	9	19
141	4.5	0	19	0	8	0
149	19	15	0	9	12.5	0
157	19	9	11.5	8	5.5	15
165	5.5	4.5	15	0	8	12.5
174	19	15	11.5	0	8	12.5
184	15	12.5	8	19	11.5	5.5
197	19	12.5	8	11.5	9	0
285	4.5	12.5	15	19	8	5.5
TOTAL	130.5	111	112.5	76.5	91	70