Information courtesy of the official NCAA release

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The NCAA announced the qualifying tournament allocations for the upcoming 2026 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, and 27 student-athletes from the Mid-American Conference’s 12 teams secured a pre-allocation spot.

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; while never going below the base of .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches’ ranking and top 30 RPI ranking until reaching the maximum of 29 wrestlers per weight class.

For each wrestler who 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 select the remaining 42 at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on Tuesday, March 10, while brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 8:00 PM on Wednesday, March 11.  All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.

Rider, Ohio, and Lock Haven all have four allocations to lead the conference, while Edinboro, SIUE, and George Mason have three each. Northern Illinois and Central Michigan each allocated two spots, while Clarion and Buffalo have one spot.

All 12 MAC teams will compete at the 2026 MAC Wrestling Championships, which will take place this weekend, March 6-7, at the University at Buffalo’s Alumni Arena. The 2026 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships will take place at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 19-21.

NCAA Wrestling Championships Pre-Allocations
125 lbs. – Tyler Klinsky (Rider), Travis Clawson (Clarion)
133 lbs. – Markel Baker (Northern Illinois), Marcel Lopez (SIUE), Will Betancourt (Rider), Gable Strickland (Lock Haven)
141 lbs. – Elijah Griffin (Rider), Wyatt Henson (Lock Haven)
149 lbs. – Caleb Tyus (SIUE), Lucas Kapusta (Lock Haven), Kaden Cassidy (George Mason), Ryan Michaels (Edinboro)
157 lbs. – Mason Shrader (Central Michigan), Derek Raike (Ohio), DJ McGee (George Mason), Kaleb Burgess (Buffalo)
165 lbs. – Brock Woodcock (SIUE), Ryan Burgos (Edinboro)
174 lbs. – Avery Bassett (Lock Haven), Garrett Thompson (Ohio)
184 lbs. – Jared McGill (Edinboro), Sal Perrine (Ohio), Malachi DuVall (George Mason)
197 lbs. – Brock Zurawski (Rider), Zayne Lehman (Ohio)
285 lbs. – Devon Dawson (Northern Illinois), Bryan Caves (Central Michigan)