BTN.com staff, December 27, 2012

The 50th annual Ken Kraft Midlands Tournament start Saturday at Northwestern and wrap up Sunday with the finals airing live on BTN/BTN2Go. The event is open to Division I, II, and III wrestling teams as well as a number of post-graduate competitors. According to the latest collegiate wrestling rankings, the Big Ten currently has 10 teams ranked in the Top 25.

NWCA Rankings (12/18/12)
Rank School (First-Place Votes) Points Record
1 Penn State (9) 399 4-0
2 Oklahoma State (1) 390 7-0
3 Minnesota 378 8-1
4 Ohio State 371 6-0
5 Iowa 360 10-0
T6 Illinois 346 3-0
T6 Missouri 346 6-0
8 Cornell 329 4-2
9 Central Michigan 317 5-2
10 Oregon State 307 2-2
11 Virginia Tech 293 4-2
12 Michigan 289 6-1
13 Pittsburgh 280 2-2
14 Oklahoma 255 4-3
15 Northwestern 249 4-2
16 Wyoming 248 2-2
17 Nebraska 243 6-3
T18 Edinboro 241 3-1
T18 Maryland 241 5-2
20 Virginia 216 6-2
21 Purdue 190 9-2
22 Penn 189 2-1
23 Wisconsin 176 4-2
24 Old Dominion 153 2-2
25 Lehigh 120 3-3

As the host site, NUsports.com has plenty of info, including a cool bracket of all-time great Midlands competitors. It's down to four very familiar wrestling names: Tom Brands vs. Dan Gable and then Cael Sanderson vs. Bruce Baumgartner. You can read more here, or just go vote here.

This is also a good information page on this weekend's events. Remember that you can watch Sunday?s finals live on the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m. ET, and follow @NU_Wrestle on Twitter for general tournament updates and @NU_SportsLIVE for updates on Northwestern wrestlers and Sunday's finals. The #Midlands50 hashtag on Twitter is in honor of the event's 50th anniversary.

Updated brackets also will be posted on NUsports.com.

Here's the general schedule:

Saturday, Dec. 29
9:30 a.m. – Session I
7 p.m. – Session II

Sunday, Dec. 30
Noon – Session III – Semifinals, Consolation, 7th place matches
6:30 p.m. – Parade of Champions
7 p.m. – Session IV – 1st, 3rd, 5th place matches

All-time results are posted here.