I wanted to go through the brackets and look at the data on match count this year. There is a lot of talk the last couple of years on number of matches decreasing. So, I wanted to see what the numbers show in the Big12 this year and I might cross reference it to the Big10 if I have time. But I only did the top 6 seeds as those guys typically give the best indication of who is wrestling.
Here are the top 6 seeds and total match count in weight order 125 - 285.
#1 - 16, 13, 20, 15, 21, 16, 19, 20, 19, 20 = 17.9 average match count
#2 - 23, 18, 24, 17, 20, 20, 21, 26, 19, 20 = 20.8 average match count
#3 - 14, 23, 23, 25, 21, 29, 17, 18, 11, 22 = 20.3 average match count
#4 - 25, 24, 23, 15, 16, 25, 13, 14, 21, 23 = 19.9 average match count
#5 - 21, 23, 21, 23, 16, 23, 19, 16, 18, 22 = 20.2 average match count
#6 - 16, 13, 18, 24, 22, 23, 23, 17, 28, 12 = 19.6 average match count
By the numbers: Lowest match count for a #1-6 seed is 11. Highest is 29. So no one had less than 10 or more than 30 matches. Average was between 17.9 - 20.8 matches, less than a 3 match difference comparing the top 6 seeds.
By comparison - our total match count 125-285 in order:
16, 18, 20, 15, 16, 20, 21, 16, 14, 20. We averaged 17.6 matches as a team with our lowest being 14 and highest at 21. We also earned a top 6 seed at 9/10 weights.
So by comparison, we should be averaging around 18-21 matches to fall in line with what the trends are in the Big12 conference right now. I have a feeling these numbers are going to be much higher here than in the big10.