ELITISM OR SOCIALISM
NCAA qualifying limits could leave ranked at home
Is it possible for a conference to be too good" That’s the question the NCAA and the Big 12 is facing this year as the Division I wrestling community enters its post-season phase.
In a year when the Big 12 should be celebrating as all five teams have been ranked in the Top Ten this season and currently have 40 of their possible 50 wrestlers ranked in the Top 20 by Wrestling International Newsmagazine, there will be an inevitable gloom by the time the teams complete the upcoming conference tournament, Mar. 6, in Ames, Iowa.
For there will be least five nationally-ranked wrestlers within the Big 12 that will not make the trip to St. Louis and the NCAA Division I Championships, Mar. 18-20, because of the NCAA’s qualification methods that limit the Big 12 Conference to 36 qualifiers.
"I warned the rules committee a long time ago that this would happen," recalled Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas, who also sits on the committee that came up with a formula that disperses the 330 wrestlers who are allowed to compete in the Division I Nationals. "I said for a long time that the formula is flawed but it fell on deaf ears."
The formula is based primarily on how conferences finish in the past five NCAA tournaments — the conferences that have wrestlers finish in the top 12 per weight earn more spots in future tournaments — and each qualifying tournament is guaranteed at least 11 NCAA spots.
But there also is a limit to the number of wrestlers that a conference can qualify for the tournament. In the Big 12, that number of qualifiers for the NCAAs is 36; four less than the number of nationally-ranked wrestlers from that conference.
"The biggest thing is that we can’t improve," said Oklahoma coach Jack Spates. "No matter how tough our conference gets, (the NCAA) has a system where we can’t improve and that’s wrong."
In the Big 12, where
the top three wrestlers per weight and six wild cards (over the ten weights) qualify for Nationals, there are four weights where all five schools have nationally-ranked wrestlers. That includes 149 pounds where four wrestlers are ranked among the top six in their weight.And at 197 pounds, where only two Big 12 wrestlers are ranked, at least one of the top three at that weight will be unranked, meaning that as least five ranked wrestlers will not make the trip to St. Louis.
Meanwhile, there are four other qualifiers (Atlantic Coast Conference, East Regional, Eastern Wrestling League and Southern Conference) that will send 76 wrestlers to the NCAAs with less than 40 percent of those qualifiers (19) nationally ranked.
While the Big 12 coaches are upset, many of the other coaches around the nation believe the formula is good in that it provides more opportunities for wrestlers, which in turn will help the sport grow.
"Wrestling needs parity and to have parity, you have to spread the wealth of wrestling opportunities," said Lehigh coach Greg Strobel. His wrestlers will emerge from the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, which has seen its number of qualifiers grow from 26 in 1999 to 39 this season. "If we don’t expand the number of opportunites to other schools around the country, those power conferences will only have each other to compete against."
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