Big 12 wrestling has added a new component to its postseason slate in preparation for the NCAA Championships.

New to this season is the Big 12 Duals, which will be held on Friday, March 8, 2013, before the individual-based Big 12 Championships on Saturday, March 9. Each team will face the other three squads in the conference in a round-robin fashion to determine the outright Big 12 dual champion.

“Right now, I feel good about it because I have to feel good about it,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson in a Monday, March 4, news conference. “It’s something that we have to do; it’s something that we have to embrace.”

Jackson said this new format simulates the NCAA tournament more so than previous setups in that it provides up to five matches within the span of two days. At the NCAA tournament, which takes place in the span of three days, a wrestler can have up to four matches in a day with the average being two or three depending on whether they advance or fall to the wrestlebacks.

At last season’s Big 12 tournament — the only one with a four-team format and no dual championships in the modern era — each wrestler had two matches to determine where they would finish in the conference.

Since there are only four wrestlers per weight class, some will have to face two opponents twice if they wrestle all five matches.

“It’s very hard to beat a guy twice,” said 165-pounder Michael Moreno. “I’m ready for it, but from the outside looking in, I wouldn’t like it much.”

Two of Moreno’s three opponents — Tyler Caldwell of Oklahoma State and Bubby Graham of Oklahoma — ranked in the top five nationally by InterMat. Moreno is guaranteed to face Graham twice and could face Caldwell twice as well.

“It’ll be cool for the fans, I guess, to see more wrestling,” Moreno said. “But, like I said, you do what you’ve got to do.”

Moreno is currently projected to secure the third-and-final automatic qualifying bid at 165 pounds.

However, there are some positives to adding three extra matches to the weekend.

“If you haven’t competed in a while, you can get the cobwebs out those first three matches,” said 184-pounder Boaz Beard. “It will help the guys that are seeded low if they have a big match and beat someone; it will give them a better seed at the actual Big 12 tournament.”

Seedings for Saturday’s Big 12 tournament have yet to be released.

Loss of AQ bids

With the loss of Missouri and addition of West Virginia, the Big 12 Conference lost 12 automatic qualifying bids to the NCAA Championships, which is a decrease from 31 to 19.

“You never foresee that,” Jackson said. “We didn’t know that Oklahoma was going to redshirt half their team. West Virginia coming into the conference: I know they didn’t bring as many qualifiers as they would have liked. But, I do think we’re going to get more than that when it all rolls out.”

One of the scenarios that could take place is if a ranked wrestler gets beat in the semifinals to get kicked out of the championship match — and would thus lose an automatic qualifying bid — he would likely earn an at-large bid from the NCAA if he meets two of the three criteria required for one.

This scenario is applicable to seven weight classes, excluding 125 (one bid), 165 (three) and heavyweight (one).