I'm not going to pretend that I understand how they do at large bids in wrestling but it will be interesting to see how they handle Murin. He's ranked in the top 10 and the RPI is a damn small sample size.
But if he misses the NCAA's it's his own damn fault.
It's about as simple as computational physics. This is what the NCAA says, but it's different every year because each conference gets different allocations of at large bids.
At-large selections are based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition, quality wins, coaches’ ranking, results against common opponents, RPI, qualifying event placement, and winning percentage.
But you're right, it's his fault. It really sucks ass that we're sending 9 guys and not a full house. That would send a statement.
I really think we can get Lee, The Bull, Kemerer, and Eierman on top of the podium. They're all veterans of tough, huge matches throughout their careers, and Lee & Eierman both have wrestled on big stages internationally on the freestyle circuit.
DeSantos is waaaaaaaaay outmatched by RBY. Sucks, but it is what it is.
Young wrestles to not lose and doesn't score enough points to be a big timer. One of the most frustrating (to me) wrestlers I've seen since I started watching in the early 80s. If matches were a half hour long he'd never lose because he's ruthless on top, but he doesn't get there soon enough in big time matches.
Brands is young and makes too many mistakes (hopefully he'll start to outgrow that soon). What's frustrating about him is that he'll wrestle a match where 90% of the time he's doing all the right things, but there's a 20 second chunk of time somewhere when he'll make a rookie mistake and get out of position. He'll go 2 TD, 4 NF and at this level there's no digging yourself out of 0-6 even if you don't get pinned. If he could clean that little shit up he'd be a top 3 guy.
And nobody is winning HWT on this planet other than Gable Steveson. He and Spencer Lee are the two best pound for pound folkstylers in the country by 1,000 miles. Even though big Cass is gonna finish third, where he helps us is that he's also the third best guy in the country by a long ways. There are planty of guys he can tech and pin before he gets beat by Parris.
Warner is a wild card. Some people compare him to Young but it couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, Warner doesn't score a lot of points, but he's strategic. He wrestles his own match and uses his defense to set up shots or he plays the math game with escapes and riding time. Kaleb just frustratingly locks up and snaps for two and a half periods and doesn't make legit shots until he's down to far or his opponent has RT locked up.