Mountaineer Wrestling
BIG 12
CONFERENCE
Over the last seven years, the Big 12 Conference has gone through many changes to the wrestling landscape. In the summer of 2015, six schools of the Western Wrestling Conference – Air Force, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming – announced its addition to the Big 12’s wrestling competition. Two years later, the Big 12 added Fresno State and Northern Iowa to give the conference a 12-team field. It wouldn’t be any different heading into the 2021-22 season as the conference announced the addition of the University of Missouri due to Fresno State officially eliminating its wrestling program. Missouri joins legacy members Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and West Virginia along with affiliate programs Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming. Across multiple wrestling publications (FloWrestling, InterMat, and WIN Magazine), the Big 12 consistently lands five to six programs within the top 25 of the preseason rankings toward projecting how teams will finish at the NCAA Tournament. InterMat was the only one to produce a dual ranking that had six members on the list, including No. 2 Missouri, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 13 Wyoming, No. 23 South Dakota State, and No. 25 Iowa State.
10
