Welcome to my 18th annual B1G Wrestling Championships seeding review. Before I begin, an explanation is needed this year. The Big Ten will be using point-based criteria to compare wrestlers and come up with seeds. Good for them. I’m still going to do my seeds the old-fashioned way, imperfect (though sometimes perfection and I do meet!) as they are; not to “compete” with the Big Ten’s process but to add color commentary to the shared notion that head-to-head wins and comparing results against common opponents should be the basis for pre-seeding and final seeding. The rest of the point-based criteria I’m not as sold on, for a variety of reasons that you may catch below, or in the weight class write-ups.
For those that are not familiar, this is my attempt to deep-dive into conference results and look for differentiation, moving wrestlers up and down my seed list until all the results and their impact on seeding have been exhausted. When I don’t see differentiation, I resort to a secret weapon – the “coin flip”, which will be proudly announced when it happens.
Rankings do not matter, only results between conference foes. Frankly, within the Big Ten it is tough enough to seed when only wrestling eight out of 13 potential opponents at most, with tons of other match-ups missed due to injury/illness/whatever. A smidge over 50% of the 140 (14 teams, 10 wrestlers each) wrestlers wrestled a full slate of matches, or eight bouts, while about 20% of the 140 wrestling five conference bouts or fewer. Eight are not enough, in my opinion; five or fewer can at times make it nearly impossible. Regardless of system used, I call these “traps & gaps”, even with a numbers-based criteria system. There was a time when supplemental bouts from Midlands, Southern Scuffle, and a dozen or so other tournaments would help, even if used only for tiebreakers. I might be wrong, but it appears many-a-team have adopted the Penn State system, as it appears fewer of those bouts happen today than say a decade ago. Is it possible coaches are emulating a system that keeps wrestlers fresher and allows them to peak in the post-season? I don’t know for sure. As an aside, it is true that the National Duals happened, with five match-ups between Big Ten teams. Three of those five match-ups were repeated during the regular season, leaving only a small amount of new information.
Last year I provided a bit of history in this preface. It is worth repeating that I do this for fun, for you my fellow fans. I am human, and an imperfect one at that, so you might find a mistake or two. Let me know, and it will be fixed pronto. Differences of opinion are harder to fix, but have at it, I’ll listen, and then if it is nothing more than an opinion, it will be handled accordingly. That said, thank you for the kind words and thoughtful agreements and disagreements of the past. You HAVE impacted my process!
My process is this, as a reminder; after the final Big Ten Conference dual of the season, my work begins, though I’m cheating a bit this year. Several days after, and I will publish one weight class at a time, sometimes one per day, sometimes two, until all 10 weight classes are done. All shall be published BEFORE the Big Ten pre-seeds are announced. Then the Coup de grâce will be a few paragraphs on the team race. Please note that I shall publish a few weight classes this week, prior to the weekend’s final match, Indiana vs Purdue, focusing on the weight classes where those two teams have no one in my top 9.
Well, I believe that does it for my remarks. Please enjoy!! The first weight class, 149, is finished and shall be posted tomorrow (Wednesday).
For those that are not familiar, this is my attempt to deep-dive into conference results and look for differentiation, moving wrestlers up and down my seed list until all the results and their impact on seeding have been exhausted. When I don’t see differentiation, I resort to a secret weapon – the “coin flip”, which will be proudly announced when it happens.
Rankings do not matter, only results between conference foes. Frankly, within the Big Ten it is tough enough to seed when only wrestling eight out of 13 potential opponents at most, with tons of other match-ups missed due to injury/illness/whatever. A smidge over 50% of the 140 (14 teams, 10 wrestlers each) wrestlers wrestled a full slate of matches, or eight bouts, while about 20% of the 140 wrestling five conference bouts or fewer. Eight are not enough, in my opinion; five or fewer can at times make it nearly impossible. Regardless of system used, I call these “traps & gaps”, even with a numbers-based criteria system. There was a time when supplemental bouts from Midlands, Southern Scuffle, and a dozen or so other tournaments would help, even if used only for tiebreakers. I might be wrong, but it appears many-a-team have adopted the Penn State system, as it appears fewer of those bouts happen today than say a decade ago. Is it possible coaches are emulating a system that keeps wrestlers fresher and allows them to peak in the post-season? I don’t know for sure. As an aside, it is true that the National Duals happened, with five match-ups between Big Ten teams. Three of those five match-ups were repeated during the regular season, leaving only a small amount of new information.
Last year I provided a bit of history in this preface. It is worth repeating that I do this for fun, for you my fellow fans. I am human, and an imperfect one at that, so you might find a mistake or two. Let me know, and it will be fixed pronto. Differences of opinion are harder to fix, but have at it, I’ll listen, and then if it is nothing more than an opinion, it will be handled accordingly. That said, thank you for the kind words and thoughtful agreements and disagreements of the past. You HAVE impacted my process!
My process is this, as a reminder; after the final Big Ten Conference dual of the season, my work begins, though I’m cheating a bit this year. Several days after, and I will publish one weight class at a time, sometimes one per day, sometimes two, until all 10 weight classes are done. All shall be published BEFORE the Big Ten pre-seeds are announced. Then the Coup de grâce will be a few paragraphs on the team race. Please note that I shall publish a few weight classes this week, prior to the weekend’s final match, Indiana vs Purdue, focusing on the weight classes where those two teams have no one in my top 9.
Well, I believe that does it for my remarks. Please enjoy!! The first weight class, 149, is finished and shall be posted tomorrow (Wednesday).
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