NCAA Conference Tournament Previews

Grappler Gold
March 5, 2026

Each qualifying tournament was awarded pre-allocations to the national tournament based on regular season performance by conference wrestlers through Feb. 23. The pre-allocations were determined by using a sliding scale of the three standards, win percentage, coaches’ rank, and RPI ranking.

For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class. Each conference is awarded a minimum of one automatic qualification per weight class, which will go to the tournament champion, even if they did not have any wrestlers reach at least two of the three thresholds. NCAA championship spots for each qualifying event will be awarded at conference tournaments based solely on place-finish.

After all the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 42 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 10, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 8 p.m. on March 11. All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.

That’s a long way of saying, if you don’t finish within your respective conference’s allocated qualifying spots, you’ll have to receive an at-large bid from an NCAA committee. Here are the qualifications per weight in each conference:

We run through all the Michigan Grapplers in each conference here. Next to each weight class is the number of automatic qualifiers at that weight in the conference. Then, we have the seed for each wrestler. Like we said above, if the wrestler does not finish in those allocated spots, they’ll have to hop for an at-large bid from the NCAA committee.

B1G Conference

125 (9 Qualifiers)
#9 Diego Sotelo (Michigan)
#12 Nick Corday (Michigan State)

133 (8 Qualifiers)
#7 Sean Spidle (Northwestern, Flint Powers HS)
#11 Caleb Weiand (Michigan State, Dakota HS)
#13 Gauge Botero (Michigan)

141 (7 Qualifiers)
#5 Dylan Ragusin (Michigan)
#7 Braeden Davis (Penn State, Dundee HS)
#14 Jaden Crumpler (Michigan State)

149 (9 Qualifiers)
#4 Lachlan McNeil (Michigan)
#13 Clayton Jones (Michigan State, Detroit CC HS)

157 (8 Qualifiers)
#5 Cameron Catrabone (Michigan)
#9 Stoney Buell (Purdue, Dundee HS)
#12 Darius Marines (Michigan State, Detroit CC HS)

165 (9 Qualifiers)
#12 Justin Gates (Michigan, Davison HS)
#14 Jack Conley (Michigan State, Lake Fenton HS)

174 (10 Qualifiers)
#4 Beau Mantanona (Michigan)
#6 Derek Gilcher (Indiana, Detroit CC HS)
#13 Connor O’Neil (Michigan State)

184 (8 Qualifiers)
#4 Brock Mantanona (Michigan)
#13 Ryan Boucher (Michigan State)

197 (10 Qualifiers)
#1 Josh Barr (Penn State, Davison HS)
#3 Remy Cotton (Rutgers, Davison HS)
#7 Kael Wisler (Michigan State, New Boston Huron HS)
#10 Hayden Walters (Michigan)

285 (9 Qualifiers)
#1 Taye Ghadiali (Michigan, Warren Fitzgerald HS)
#9 Josh Terrill (Michigan State, Holt HS)