NCAA Releases Third Coaches’ Ranking, NCAA Championships Pre-Allocations

The Cowboys are in a good spot heading into the Big 12 Championships.

The NCAA Division-I Wrestling Committee on Thursday released its third coaches’ ranking of the season, which featured all 10 of Oklahoma State’s starters. Seven Cowboys are ranked in the top six of the rankings. The committee also released its second RPI and pre-allocations for the NCAA Championships.

First, the rankings (full rankings here).

Coaches’ Ranking (RPI)
125: No. 3 Troy Spratley (5)
133: No. 17 Reece Witcraft (-)
141: No. 6 Tagen Jamison (7)
157: No. 11 Caleb Fish
165: No. 6 Cameron Amine (4)
174: No. 2 Dean Hamiti Jr. (1)
184: No. 3 Dustin Plott (1)
197: No. 6 Luke Surber (2)
HWT: No. 3 Wyatt Hendrickson (1)

Sixteen coaches (two from each conference) vote on these rankings. They can only consider the designated starter from a school at each weight class. Wrestlers must have eight Division-I matches in their weight class to be considered with at least one of those matches coming in the past 30 days.

As for the NCAA Championships allocations, the Big 12 received 61 pre-allocations. That’s the second-most of any conference trailing only the Big Ten (87). The ACC is the next closest with 38 pre-allocations. The allocations represent the amount of Big 12 Championships placers who will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Championships.

Here is how the Big 12’s pre-allocations break down (full pre-allocations here):

125: 7
133: 6
141: 7
149: 6
157: 7
165: 7
174: 6
184: 7
197: 4
HWT: 4

If the Coaches’ Rankings are anything to go by, all 10 Cowboys would automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Upsets happen, though, and if a Cowboy is to get upset in Tulsa, there are 43 at-large qualifications available — at least four in each weight class. Each weight class at the NCAA Championships will have 33 wrestlers competing.

The Big 12 Championships are March 8-9 at the BOK Center in Tulsa. Big 12 seeds and brackets are set to release on Monday.