INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Four North Dakota State wrestlers were listed in the second NCAA Division I coaches’ panel rankings and first NCAA RPI (ratings percentage index) released Thursday, Feb. 13. The next rankings will be released Thursday, Feb. 27, and include conference allocations.
North Dakota State (7-3, 4-1 #Big12WR) is scheduled to host No. 21-ranked Stanford (10-2, 3-1 Pac-12) at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, and Air Force (4-5, 1-4 #Big12WR) at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, in Scheels Center. Sunday is Senior Day.
NDSU 133 Cam Sykora (10-4 overall, 6-3 duals) was ranked No. 10 by the coaches panel, 157 Jared Franek (20-6, 8-2) is No. 18 in the RPI and No. 25 coaches’ panel, 165 Andrew Fogarty (16-2, 9-0) is No. 14 in the RPI and No. 20 coaches’ panel, and heavyweight Brandon Metz (18-7, 6-3) is No. 21 coaches’ panel and No. 23 in the RPI. Sykora and Fogarty are three-time NCAA tournament qualifiers.
Division I wrestling coaches’ panel and RPI rankings
The final rankings will be one of the criteria used as part of the selection process to determine the qualifiers for the 2020 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on March 19-21 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Click Here: New Zealand rugby store
The rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the seven conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, EIWA, MAC, Pac-12 and SoCon), which is double the voters that had previously been used for the coaches’ panel rankings. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have participated in at least five matches against Division I opponents in the weight class and have wrestled within the last 30 days to be ranked.
The RPI is a calculation that considers a wrestler’s 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 first two rankings (Jan. 24/Feb. 13) are used primarily for educational purposes to promote the selection criteria to coaches, student-athletes, media and fans. The third ranking (Feb. 27) will be the ranking that will be used by the NCAA Wrestling Committee to assist in determining the advance allocations to each qualifying tournament. The final ranking following conference tournaments will be used to provide the most accurate and up-to-date rankings to the committee as an important element of the selection criteria during the in-person selection meeting.
Wrestlers in each weight class will be measured by winning percentage, rating percentage index (RPI) and coaches’ rankings to earn allocation spots for their qualifying tournaments for the championships.
The above criteria, in addition to head-to-head competition, quality wins, results against common opponents and qualifying tournament placement are all part of the evaluation process for selection and seeding the committee uses for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
Bison Tickets
Check out Bison Wrestling at gobison.com and on Twitter.
View More College News