Takedown Report

How do the New Additions Impact the Pac-12?

Last week, we learned that the Pac-12 is in the process of making power moves to strengthen the league from a wrestling standpoint. Before the 2025-26 season started, the conference announced that Northern Illinois would join for the 2026-27 season. The news released last week announced that Air Force, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, and South Dakota State would join, as well.
The question is, how does this move impact the conference going forward? Of course, the obvious answer is more stability and a nine-team conference tournament instead of the bare bones four-team tournament. Looking deeper than that, what could some of these weight classes look like with the new additions?
In 2026, the Pac-12 earned 13 allocations for the NCAA Tournament and added one additional at-large for a total of 14 wrestlers in Cleveland. The five new schools were responsible for 17 national qualifiers – one 2026 All-American, one past All-American and a bloodround’er.
Going forward, there’s a chance that the Pac-12 can double its representation at nationals with the changes. Playing devils advocate, one might say these new schools benefitted in some ways from a Big 12 conference with a bunch of allocations available. That’s true in … more at … https://intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/pac-12/how-do-the-new-additions-impact-the-pac-12-r100937/

May 5, 2026 Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | Leave a comment