February 2012 is an exciting month for college wrestling as the first ever regional team dual meet tournament will take place. The NWCA/Cliff Keen Division I National Duals Presented by Hibiclens and The Marines, will be held at Cornell, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Rutgers on the weekend of February 11th.
The ultimate goal of the National Duals (regionals and final), which is coined Mat Mayhem is to create a premier national dual meet championship that will become a platform for growing spectator and media interest in wrestling both at the institutional and national levels.
Out of the twenty-four teams competing in this event, fifteen are ranked in the Top 25 of the NWCA/USA Today Division I Coaches Poll. There are seven No. 1 ranked individuals who will be competing, joining the thirty-four wrestlers that are ranked in the Top 50. Sixty-eight of the individuals competing are also ranked in the Top 10 of their weight class.
The tournament format will be wrestled in three rounds on two mats at each facility. Teams will be seeded No. 1 through No. 6 and will wrestle according to their seed.
Each region will have three rounds with the teams being seeded one through six. In the first round, seeds 1 and 2 will receive a bye with seeds 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 wrestling each other. The winners from the first round matches will move into the semifinals for round two against the No. 1 and No. 2 seed. The winners of the semifinal matches will then advance to the final round. At the same time the final round is being wrestled, the first round teams that lost will wrestle their second match.
The winner of each region will move on to compete on February 19th, for the National Championship. The host site for this event will be announced soon.
Below is the breakdown of the twenty-four teams broken down into four regionals (the first team listed is the host team):
- Iowa State, Iowa, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and Northern Iowa.
- Cornell, Central Michigan, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, and American.
- Rutgers, Minnesota, Kent State, Michigan, Missouri, and Cal Poly.
- Oklahoma State, Boise State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Chattanooga.
Rutgers will host their regional on February 11th, while the other three regional tournaments will take place at Cornell, Iowa State and Oklahoma State on February 12th.
All videos and information about Mat Mayhem are listed on the www.nwconline.com homepage, along with the NWCA You Tube, Facebook and Twitter accounts. This will allow all information to easily be shared by one small click of a button.
Ticket and more specific event information are available at http://www.nwcaonline.com/NWCAWebSite/Events/nwcanationalduals/mat-mayhem under the events section.
Procrastination: Pick a Finals Site & List It So the Fans Make Make Plans!
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