How rankings work

Every wrestler starts each season at 1000. From there, your rating moves after every match:

Rating = previous rating ± match points + quality-win bonus + postseason bonus

Rankings are recalculated from scratch after every event, in date order, so the whole season counts — not just your last tournament. You're ranked against wrestlers in your own weight class and gender. When two wrestlers finish within 30 rating points, a head-to-head result breaks the tie — see below.

Pick a section instead of Stateto see the same rating re-ranked among wrestlers in that CIF section. It's the identical number — just a section-only leaderboard, not a separate score.

Match points work like chess ratings (Elo): beating a higher-rated wrestler earns a lot; beating a lower-rated one earns a little. Losses mirror that — losing to a top wrestler costs you almost nothing, losing an upset costs the most.

Example: you're rated 1000 and beat an opponent rated 1100. You had roughly a 36% chance to win, so the upset pays +20.5for a decision. If they beat you (the expected result), they'd only earn +11.5.

How you win matters — bonus-point wins are scaled up:

Same upset by fall: +20.5 × 1.20 = +24.6. A pin is worth 20% more than a decision, every time.

Only varsity matches count, and forfeits never do.JV and other non-varsity results don't factor into rankings, and forfeit, injury-default, and medical-forfeit bouts award zero points and don't appear in your rankings record at all — you can't gain or lose rating off the mat.

A win only moves your rating if the opponent is credible — currently ranked, carrying a postseason seed from last year, or a returning medalist. Beating an unproven or clearly weaker opponent keeps just 10% of its match points (nearly nothing). So stacking wins at a small tournament, or wrestling more events, doesn't climb you — and sitting out a weekend can't drop you, because no one is gaining on empty wins. Losses always count in full: losing to a weak opponent still hurts, beating them just doesn't pay.

Against a credible opponent you earn extra points on top of match points, by their rank in their weight class at the time you beat them:

Ranks take a few matches to form, so early in the season a returning medalistcounts as a credible, bonus-worthy win by their last-year finish — beating last year's State placer is worth more than a Section placer:

The larger of the two (current rank vs. last-year medal) applies — they don't stack. Either way a big scalp pays twice: full match points and the bonus.

Rating is the body of your whole season, so it can leave two wrestlers a hair apart. When that happens — within 30 rating points — whoever won the match between them that season is ranked ahead, even if their rating is fractionally lower.

It only settles near-ties: a clear rating gap of more than 30 points is decided by rating, not one result. A split series (each wins one) stays on rating. Head-to-head already moves your rating through match points too — this rule just makes sure a clean win over a near-equal is never buried under it.

Placing at Section, Masters, or State is the biggest single boost you can earn. The bonus is 35 × tournament weight × placement multiplier. Tougher tournaments carry bigger weights:

Section strength adjusts the weights.A section that sent more wrestlers to State last season is a tougher bracket, so placing there is worth more — each section's weight is nudged up or down by its previous-season State qualifier count (only last season counts). The weights above are the baseline the data adjusts around.

Ratings reset to 1000 each season — but postseason results follow you. Every Section, Masters, and State placement from last season is added to your starting rating (35 × weight × placement multiplier per placement), so proven wrestlers start the new year ahead of the pack.

Placement comes first.If you placed, your seed is your placement — a higher finish always seeds ahead of a lower one at the same tournament, no matter the match count. If you competed in the postseason but didn't place, your wins still earn a smaller carry-over credit (1.75× weight × wins), but it's always capped below the lowest placer, so a placer never starts behind a non-placer. A winless postseason run still shows in your seed breakdown with its record — it just adds zero points.

Making State carries over too. Qualifying for State — win or lose once you get there — earns a flat starting bonus the next season, on top of any placement or record credit. Even a wrestler who went 0–2 at State cleared their Section and Masters to get there, so that alone is worth something. The bonus is bigger out of a deeper section, where reaching State is a harder road — and because boys and girls have separate qualifying fields per section, the bonus differs by gender (each gender is scaled against its own deepest section):

Seniors graduate.A senior is ranked normally through their final season, but a grade-12 season doesn't seed the next one — graduated wrestlers don't appear on the following year's board.

Every varsity match counts — there's no such thing as an unranked match. But you hold a numbered spot on the board only once you have 3 counted matches in the season.

Why the minimum? One or two matches is too small a sample to trust: a 1-0 wrestler who beat one weak opponent shouldn't out-rank proven wrestlers with hard schedules — and quality-win bonuses for beating "ranked" opponents would be built on meaningless ranks.

Under the minimum you're still rated, with full match history — you're listed in the "fewer than 3matches" group below the board until you qualify. Your weight class is wherever you wrestled most recently.

• Finish matches. A pin pays 20% more than a decision — bonus points compound over a season.
• Wrestle up, not down. Beating higher-rated and ranked opponents is where big points live; padding a record against unranked wrestlers barely moves you.
• Peak for the postseason. A single Section, Masters, or State placement can outweigh weeks of regular-season wins — and it seeds you higher next year.
• Losses to great wrestlers are cheap. Taking a match against a top seed risks little rating and offers the biggest upside in the system.