I have a PDF file from the NCAA that I found with a web search linked below.

Each wrestler can "qualify" under three different criteria:

- Winning percentage (.700, minimum 8 matches at the weight)
- RPI (approximately top 33, minimum 17 matches at the weight)
- Coach's poll ranking (approximately top 33)

If you get all 3, you are a "gold" qualifier. Get 2 and you are a "silver" qualifier. In either case, you don't personally get a bid from those criteria. However, you do get an automatic bid for your conference (ACC).

The ACC basically pools together the bids at each weight class. If we have 3 bids at 133, then the top 3 in the ACC tournament will automatically make the NCAA. If a conference earns no automatic bids at a weight class, I think that they are awarded 1 bid for the champion.

So even if you meet none of the criteria, you're in if you meet the required placement at the ACC. (You're basically stealing the bid someone else earned in that case.) If you have fewer than 8 matches at a weight, you can't earn a bid because you won't qualify under winning percentage or RPI.

The bids handed out this way are less than the whole field. The remaining bids are handed out on an at-large basis based on a number of criteria (those above plus beating someone who did earn a bid for their conference). These at-larges will probably start by taking guys who earned a bid but were upset in the conference tournament and then pick up other borderline wrestlers. In the recent past, we've had pretty good luck with bids for borderline guys that didn't qualify in the ACC tournament.

For Gustafson, we have the open of putting him in "open" tournaments (like the Franklin and Marshall) on bye weeks. This can get you 4+ matches, and many are against lower-level D1 competition that helps your winning percentage.