IRVING, Texas – The Big 12 will send 81 wrestlers to the 2026 NCAA Championships, marking the most in Conference history, as announced in Wednesday’s bracket reveal. The Conference received 19 at-large selections in six different weight classes and increased its qualifier count by 10 from 2025.
Oklahoma State freshman Jax Forrest and Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida were announced as the top-seeded wrestlers in the 133-pound and heavyweight brackets, respectively. The Big 12 also earned No. 2 seeds at 141 pounds with OSU’s Sergio Vega, 184 pounds with Missouri’s Aeoden Sinclair and 197 pounds with ISU’s Rocky Elam.
The 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships will be held at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, beginning on Thursday, March 19 with coverage on ESPN+, ESPNU and ESPN2. The national championship session, at 5:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 21, will be broadcasted on ESPN.
The Big 12 is home to four NCAA team national champions alongside 69 individual national champions, with Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson and Dean Hamiti Jr. being the most recent in 2025.
Recent Big 12 NCAA Qualifiers Count
- 2025: 71
- 2024: 71
- 2023: 77
- 2022: 68
- 2021: 66
- 2020: 60
- 2019: 61
- 2018: 51
- 2017: 44
- 2016: 44
- 2015: 25