Don't know how many wrestling fans there are out there but I follow the sport fairly closely.
This year's championships are being held March 17-19 in the Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit Michigan (sadly, we'll have to endure some "Pizza, Pizza" commercials).
The B1G clearly is the dominant conference, so it's most likely that the national title will go to one of the 3 highest ranked teams in that conference: Penn State, Michigan, or Iowa. It's interesting in that Penn State, despite having 4 individual B1G conference champions, was edged out for the team trophy by Michigan (who had 2 individual conference champions) by the narrowest of margins, 143 - 141.5. Michigan did that with a very strong performance in the wrestlebacks. In fact, the last match of the tournament was a consolation match for 3rd place - after all the individual crowns had been awarded. BUT, it was decisive, as it pitted Michigan's #2-ranked Mason Parris against Penn State's #4-ranked Greg Kerkvliet, both of whom had lost unexpectedly in earlier rounds. Parris eked out a 5-3 win over an extremely lackluster performance by Kerkvliet, who to me looked like he didn't want to wrestle. To be sure, he needed a fall for Penn State to take the team title, and that was unlikely. But it just looked uncharacteristic for a Cael Sanderson-coached grappler.
I again came away shaking my head at the awesomeness of Minnesotan and Olympic gold medalist Gable Stevenson, who is a giant man among mere mortal boys. I simply believe there's no one out there who can beat him. And this 285 athlete does backflips after every win.
Bracket release is at 6PM EST tonight
2022 NCAA Wrestling TV schedule
Here's what USA Wrestling's outlook is for this year's tourney.
BTW, if that predicted score is even close to correct, that will be a dominant win.
This year's championships are being held March 17-19 in the Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit Michigan (sadly, we'll have to endure some "Pizza, Pizza" commercials).
The B1G clearly is the dominant conference, so it's most likely that the national title will go to one of the 3 highest ranked teams in that conference: Penn State, Michigan, or Iowa. It's interesting in that Penn State, despite having 4 individual B1G conference champions, was edged out for the team trophy by Michigan (who had 2 individual conference champions) by the narrowest of margins, 143 - 141.5. Michigan did that with a very strong performance in the wrestlebacks. In fact, the last match of the tournament was a consolation match for 3rd place - after all the individual crowns had been awarded. BUT, it was decisive, as it pitted Michigan's #2-ranked Mason Parris against Penn State's #4-ranked Greg Kerkvliet, both of whom had lost unexpectedly in earlier rounds. Parris eked out a 5-3 win over an extremely lackluster performance by Kerkvliet, who to me looked like he didn't want to wrestle. To be sure, he needed a fall for Penn State to take the team title, and that was unlikely. But it just looked uncharacteristic for a Cael Sanderson-coached grappler.
I again came away shaking my head at the awesomeness of Minnesotan and Olympic gold medalist Gable Stevenson, who is a giant man among mere mortal boys. I simply believe there's no one out there who can beat him. And this 285 athlete does backflips after every win.
Bracket release is at 6PM EST tonight
2022 NCAA Wrestling TV schedule
Thursday | March 17 | 12pm | 3:30 | ESPNU |
Thursday | March 17 | 7pm | 3:30 | ESPN |
Friday | March 18 | 11am | 3:00 | ESPNU |
Friday | March 18 | 8:00pm | 3:00 | ESPN |
Saturday | Mach 19 | 11am | 3:00 | ESPNU |
Saturday | March 19 | 7pm | 3:00 | ESPN |
Here's what USA Wrestling's outlook is for this year's tourney.
Top 10:The qualifying tournaments are complete and it’s time to predict which team and individuals will perform the best at the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships that will be held March 17-19 in Detroit, Mich.
With that in mind, WIN Magazine is predicting that Penn State will win its first team championship since 2019 with the Nittany Lions followed by Michigan, Iowa, Arizona State and NC State, based on WIN’s Tournament Power Index.
Excluding bonus points, the TPI is compiled from numbers associated with individual placements/rankings based on our current rankings below: 20 points 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.
Unlike the regular-season rankings, this final rating predicts which wrestlers will win an individual championship and who will place among the Top 8 in their weight class to earn All-American honors.
Among the ten individual weight classes, WIN is predicting that two of Penn State’s defending national champs — Roman Bravo-Young (133) and Carter Starocci (174) — as well as Iowa State’s David Carr (157) and Minnesota’s Gable Steveson (Hwt) will repeat in this year’s tournament that will be held in Little Caesars Arena.
Meanwhile, WIN is predicting that Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis, who missed the last two national tournaments, will capture his third national championship at 149 pounds and will be joined on the individual championship stand by teammate and fellow EIWA champion Vito Arujau at 125 pounds.
The remaining four champions are expected to be Rutgers’ Sebastian Rivera (141), Cal Poly’s Evan Wick (165), Michigan’s Myles Amine (184) and Wyoming’s Stephan Buchanan. (197).
Rk. | School | Total Rank | Top 8 | TPI Pts |
1. | Penn State | 9 | 6 | 105.5 |
2. | Michigan | 9 | 7 | 73 |
3. | Iowa | 9 | 6 | 72.5 |
4. | Arizona State | 7 | 5 | 67.5 |
5. | NC State | 9 | 4 | 56.5 |
6t. | Cornell | 6 | 2 | 46 |
6t. | Ohio State | 8 | 4 | 46 |
8. | Virginia Tech | 6 | 4 | 42.5 |
9. | Iowa State | 7 | 3 | 40 |
10. | Nebraska | 7 | 4 | 39.5 |
BTW, if that predicted score is even close to correct, that will be a dominant win.