Every fall, the leaves change color, the temperature drops and wrestling fans forget how rankings work. This year's brain buster: Roman Bravo-Young.

For nearly the entirety of his high school career, RBY was at or near the top of his weight class ranking and the Big Board. No one questioned that he was a blue chipper heading to Penn State.

But once in Happy Valley, or Iowa City, or Columbus, etc., you restart at zero. No one's high school accolades or freestyle accomplishments mean anything when it comes to college rankings. This is nothing new, wrestling rankings are always done based on collegiate resume and take a "wait and see" approach when it comes to freshmen.

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The Nittany Lion 133 pounder has looked excellent thus far, going 6-0 between the Keystone Classic and three dual meets. He's got two pins, two majors, a tech and an injury default. All good on that end, but he's not beaten anyone remotely close to being ranked, nor has he even faced any NCAA qualifiers.

Now, compare that to Nick Suriano. When he was a true freshman, he entered the rankings very quickly. It had nothing to do with any of his high school accomplishments or any projections, he literally forced his way in by beating the #4 guy in the country at the time.

Had RBY been given the chance against Scotty Parker, or seen a ranked guy at Keystone, we might have some data to work with. But we don't, so remains outside of this week's rankings. The clamor is to rank him, because we all know he's good enough, or so the argument goes. Not going to happen, but we certainly agree. He was in the third tier of 133 before the season when we discussed each weight on FRL, and currently have him as the projected nine seed in Brackastrology

So let's dig into PSU's schedule a little and look at some big opportunities for RBY. The huge one to circle is the Southern Scuffle, Jan. 1-2. As it currently stands, as many as four ranked wrestlers could be wrestling in Chattanooga after the new year. 

Ranked Wrestlers At The Scuffle

#7 Daton Fix, Oklahoma State

#10 Austin Gomez, Iowa State

#13 Korbin Myers, Virginia Tech

#19 Sean Nickell, CSU Bakersfield

Pretty simple, if RBY wins this weight, he has an excellent argument to be in the top 10. I don't think there's anyone giving him a 0% chance to win, but more realistically, you'd probably favor Fix and Gomez over RBY going into the tournament.

So now we turn to Nickell and Myers, both of whom have only lost to ranked wrestlers thus far. No one would be shocked if the Bravo-Young beat either Nickell or Myers, but we've seen his teammates lose to guys of this quality as true freshmen. Again, it's a matter of wait and see, and if Bravo-Young picks up wins or places ahead of Nickell and Myers, it's going to be difficult to keep him out of the rankings.

Watch the 2019 Southern Scuffle LIVE on Flo

Jan. 1-2 | 10 a.m. ET

After the Scuffle though, the second semester doesn't afford Bravo-Young many chances to obtain or improve his ranking. Of Penn State's 10 duals, only three schools have someone currently ranked at 133.

The entire month of January, RBY won't see anyone ranked in duals. What he can do though, is pick up wins over guys on the bubble like Colin Valdiviez and Ben Thornton, both of whom could jump into the rankings with good performances at Midlands. That would help to improve RBY's record and potentially give him common opponents over guys ranked below him or pad his resume to give him more of an anchor for whatever ranking he can achieve.

Once February hits, Penn State has another five duals, 60% of which feature ranked 133 pounders. Below are those guys and when Penn State wrestles them.

Feb. 1: #3 Stevan Micic, Michigan

Feb. 8: #6 Luke Pletcher, Ohio State

Feb. 17: #15 Dylan Duncan, Illinois

Again, Bravo-Young's talent certainly suggests he'd be able to knock off Micic and Pletcher, but they'd be upsets. Which means it's possible he heads into the Big Ten tournament with something like a record of 19-4 or 20-3, having only beaten three guys ranked in the mid to low teens.

He won't be penalized for losing to guys like Fix or Micic, that's standard across all the weights. No one gets punished for falling to someone ranked ahead of them, but it does cap out how high you can climb.

It's also important to remember that there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to rankings, and other guys will continue to do things to help maintain or improve their own slot. RBY won't see #1 Seth Gross, #2 Nick Suriano, #4 Tariq Wilson or #5 Micky Phillippi at all in the regular season. He also doesn't cross paths with #8 Ethan Lizak, #9 John Erneste, #11 Austin DeSanto and #12 Montorie Bridges. My point there is, it's not just about what you do, it's about what everyone else is doing, and those guys are going to be difficult to catch.

The beautiful thing about college wrestling is that all you need to do is be in your conference tournament and you can turn that into qualifying for the NCAA tournament and in turn finishing as an All-American. So the media rankings only matter as much as they influence the coaches' ranking which helps determine the NCAA seeds.

Ultimately, I foresee it being really difficult for Bravo-Young to crack the top 10, largely due to his schedule. He'll have his shots at highly ranked guys, and will of course get his best chance to make a mark at the Big Ten tournament. But he won't be ranked until after the Scuffle at the earliest, and if he performs poorly there, good luck seeing him in the top 20 before February.