More True Freshman AA's with Five-for-Five?

Last week, the NCAA announced that they will push forward with the five-for-five eligibility system that gives student athletes five years of eligibility with generally no ability to stop the clock with redshirts, injury waivers, greyshirts. There will be plenty of talk about this in the coming weeks and months, as it will drastically change what we’ve come to know about collegiate athletics, specifically wrestling. In fact, we’ll discuss this topic at length on tomorrow’s “Over-Reaction Time” show. 

With the combination of this ruling, and the fact that wrestlers come into college more prepared than ever, I would expect to see the number of true freshmen (or now first-year’s or just freshmen) wrestlers on the podium increase. Without the ability to redshirt, if they are the best option, they’ll probably get the call in the postseason. 

Should those true freshmen make the NCAA podium, they would join a list that includes the wrestlers below - true freshmen All-Americans from the last 10 NCAA Tournaments. These are only the wrestlers that earned All-American honors one year removed from high school - no redshirts/grayshirts/gap years. 

125 lbs

1st: Spencer Lee (Iowa) - 2018

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