Sponsored by the NWCA, the All-Star Classic is intended to showcase the top college mat talent by usually featuring matches with the top two wrestlers in each weight class. Actual participants will be named in the weeks leading up to the event.
A much-anticipated annual event since 1967, the NWCA All-Star Classic has undergone some changes over the years. Originally, the All-Stars incorporated an East vs. West team dual-meet format, placing individual wrestlers on teams based on their school's geography. In the past, the event had been a capstone for the regular college wrestling season, held a week or two after the NCAA championships. However, in the past decade, the All-Star Classic has taken place around November 1, timed to start the regular collegiate calendar.
In the past couple years, the All-Star Classic has also served as an opportunity to try out new rules proposed by the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee, in a one-time, highly-controlled and monitored situation that allows wrestlers, coaches, officials and fans to see a proposed rule change in action before it is considered for overall implementation. This past April, the committee proposed using the 2015 All-Star Classic to test-drive the idea of awarding three points for a takedown, presumably in an attempt to open up scoring. (Two points for a takedown has been the standard for decades; however, for about four years in the early 1960s, the NCAA had rule where the first takedown in a match was worth two points ... with subsequent takedowns scored by that wrestler being worth only one point each. The rule was said to be a reaction to Oklahoma State's "take 'em down and let 'em up" wrestling style of racking up takedowns quickly followed by cutting an opponent loose, which, at the time, some other teams found frustrating.)
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