Greensboro, NC – The Atlantic Coast Conference has received 33 automatic qualifications for the 2023 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, which will be held March 16-18 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This marks the eighth consecutive year that the ACC has received at least 31 AQ slots. The league was awarded 2023 qualifications in the following weight classes: 125 (2), 133 (3), 141 (4), 149 (3), 157 (3), 165 (3), 174 (3), 184 (5), 197 (4) and 285 (3).
Each qualifying tournament was awarded pre-allocations to the national tournament based on regular-season performance by conference wrestlers through February 21. The pre-allocations are determined using a sliding scale of a .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches’ rank and top 30 ratings percentage index (RPI) with a maximum of 29 pre-allocations per weight class.
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 was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid 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 43 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 8, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 6 p.m. on March 9. All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.
The ACC Wrestling Championship will be held Sunday, March 5, at NC State’s Valvano Arena at Reynolds Coliseum.
The coaches’ rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the seven conferences. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have five Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days.
The RPI is a calculation that consists of three factors: winning percentage, opponent winning percentage (strength of schedule) and opponent’s opponent winning percentage (opponent’s strength of schedule). Only matches against Division I opponents at the designated weight class count towards the RPI and a wrestler needs to have wrestled 15 matches to be ranked.
The coaches’ ranking and RPI are two of several criteria that will be evaluated during the at-large selection and seeding process along with head-to-head competition, quality wins, conference tournament placement, results versus common opponents and win percentage.
A full description of the entire selection process for the 2023 Division I Wrestling Championships is available at theacc.co/ncaaWREST23