I could post this in the international section as well, but I'd like an American perspective on how OW's are chosen at tournament. I find myself frequently baffled by the OW picked in both American freestyle tournaments and NCAA wrestling.

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To my way of thinking the OW is either the most dominant wrestler, or the one who beats the most impressive opponents. At the recent NYAC and Schultz tournaments, the OW were won by Humphery and Scott, both of whom have several close 3-round matches against opponents they were supposed to beat. Similar was the Ness OW a few years back, where he had a 9-minute scoreless semifinal and barely won the final as a top seed. Then you have Jake Rosholt a few years back, who killed everyone as a #10 seed but didn't get it.

These are just a few examples off my head, but hopefully you guys get the idea. How is an OW generally picked in the US?

I think you see "Career OW" awards a lot too. Greg Jones in 2005 over Pendleton or Hendricks in particular comes to mind. Larking winning over Rosholt as a freshman is another case of this.

Makes sense AV, even though I don't agree with that reasoning. There are other awards for season or career excellence. The OW should be for the most impressive preformance in a singel competition.

I have never heard of any guidelines for OW. Coaches can vote for whoever they want. NCAA can sometimes pick what is essentially a lifetime achievement.
I think Snackems criteria make the most sense.
The EIWA gives an award to the person who was scored the most career team points in the tournament. That would be a cool award to give at NCAA.

Cael's Outstanding Wrestler award at his final NCAA tournament was in reality an "Outstanding Career" award.

His matches were good but he was not the most 'outstanding wrestler' at the tournament other than the culmination of his career with the 4th Title and the perfect record.

Any other year he would not have won it.

For zzyx:
Clearly he should have wrestled for Iowa. In addition, several years later as a coach he should not have left Iowa state in favor of moving to Pennsylvania.

All of that is deeply tied to OW.