The Big 12 added six affiliate schools for wrestling in the off-season, bringing the total number of teams in the conference to 10.

Last season, the Big 12 tournament wasn’t an automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament because only four programs in the conference offered wrestling.

Wrestlers can automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament through two ways. The first way is to meet the threshold in two of the three categories: Division-I winning percentage at the weight class, ratings percentage index and coaches rankings.

The second is for a wrestler to win the conference tournament at his weight. After that, the NCAA Division-I Wrestling Committee meets in person to select 70 remaining at-large qualifiers.

The problem for the Big 12 was that having only four teams doesn’t qualify it as an automatic qualifying conference. Even if the wrestlers would meet two of the three categories they would still be considered an at-large and not an automatic qualifier.

But now — with the addition of North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Wyoming, Air Force, Utah Valley and Northern Colorado — the Big 12 boasts a qualifying tournament once again.

“I just think it’s good for wrestling,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson. “It solidifies those programs on their own campus, in their own athletic departments. It makes the Big 12 Conference tougher. We are an automatic qualifying tournament again.”

The new conference tournament will take place somewhere that may have a soft spot in many ISU fans’ hearts.

“I’ve never been off campus for a Big 12 Championship,” Jackson said. “It’s in [Kansas City], where Cyclone fans are used to going for seeing great basketball tournaments.”

From a wrestler’s perspective, the expansion helps a great deal. The former, four-team format at the Big 12 tournament was short and didn’t prepare the wrestlers for the NCAA tournament.

Now, they don’t have to travel to as many tournaments throughout the year to simulate the NCAAs.

“When we wrestled the Big 12, it was only four teams, and that’s not really a big conference tournament,” said 149-pound Gabe Moreno. “Whereas you see the Big 10, it’s almost like a mini national tournament. I think now that we’ve added a couple more teams … it will definitely be a better preparation for the national tournament than in years past.”

The addition of the six teams has caused some concern in regard to the newcomers being ready to compete at the Big 12 level right away. However, the new schools had good showings at the NCAA tournament last season.

Twenty wrestlers from the six schools the Big 12 added made the NCAA tournament last year.

“I think these guys are going to come scrap,” said 133-pound Earl Hall. “It’s college wrestling. I don’t feel like there are any scrubs at all. You might get an easy win here or there, but every time you step on the mat, you have to be ready to scrap.”

The addition of the six schools also takes pressure off of the wrestlers from every squad in the Big 12. If they don’t meet the threshold of two of the three categories it takes to qualify during the regular season, they can wrestle their way in by winning the conference tournament.

Fewer guys will have to worry about the wild-card process if they win the conference tournament, which hasn’t always favored the Cyclones in the past.

“I think the past three or four years since I’ve been here, we always had a couple guys right on the edge, and we never seemed to get them in,” said 165-pound senior Tanner Weatherman. “A guy like Luke Goettl a couple years ago [and] Kyle Larson last year.”