Jagger's Friday Mailbag - 8/2/2024

Before we get going here, I just want to say a few words on the recent scuttlebutt with the media coverage of the Bo Bassett recruiting countdown. Allow me to preface this by admitting that the whole thing is ridiculous. I don’t need weekly updates to know he’s turning down schools that he was never going to commit to anyway and a part of me does find it somewhat disrespectful to the smaller schools, who have to be the butt of a joke when they make the cut list. But maybe that’s just me and others don’t see it that way. I know Gardner-Webb had some fun with it and that’s fine. 

If anything, it brings some good exposure to your school. So why does every media outlet big and small feel the need to cover it ad nauseam? Well, because it’s news whether we like it or not. He’s the top high school prospect in the country right now and possibly the next generational talent. 

There’s also not much else going on right now and if not for the Olympics next week there really wouldn't be anything going on. People need to produce daily content whether it be IM, Flo, or anyone else out there. Twenty years ago, you could get away with an article a day or simply updating your site every few days. Most folks barely went on the internet for more than an hour a day and we didn’t have everything at our literal fingertips. Those days are long gone. Sites need clicks. Clicks mean page views. Page views bring in advertising and advertising brings in money. It wasn't my idea. If I had it my way the League of Shadows would burn this world to the ground and we’d start over with a clean slate. 

I’m not here to kick you off my lawn or anything and I understand where both sides are coming from. The overexposure and reporting on every move will ruffle many a feather and already has if you read the comments on social media and message boards. Face it, people are going to complain. That’s why the internet was invented. 

If this was the same thing with a young star of a more popular sport then you might not look at it the same way, but wrestling is different with a much smaller circle, so we all feel just a little closer to the action. You’ll drive yourself nuts getting worked up over every little silly piece of content and you can’t stop it anyway so don’t bother. Or do bother and feed off your own rage. It feels good sometimes. 

The fact is that the athletes control everything now and don’t need classic media to promote them when they can just promote themselves. And if you don’t like it then be prepared to lose access because that’s just the way things are. It’s no surprise that the forthcoming Who’s Number One event is being held in Bishop McCort’s backyard where Flo has never held an event before. Are they catering to a school that should have multiple entries in the event? Probably. Is it a good idea to have it there so they sell a lot of tickets and have a good crowd to cheer on the hometown kids? Absolutely. It’s easy to make an argument on both sides of this and the best thing is to just deal with it, ignore it, or have some fun with it. There are bigger problems in the world right now. Like how Big Chocolate is slowly shrinking the size of our candy bars and thinking we won’t notice. But that’s a rant for another time. 

We have questions to get to and that’s why you’re here. Well, it’s just the one question actually and it comes from one half of the dynamic Rutgers broadcasting team, Nick Kosko, and since we’re Kosko guys, let’s see what he has on his mind.

It's the dog days of summer, so let me throw an alternate universe at you ... Wrestling in the Winter Olympics instead. Yes, some college guys would cause overlap, but it is interesting that a winter sport is a Summer sport every 4 years. Thoughts? Anyway, gotta prepare for year ten on the mic. Bye. 

Year ten! You’re just a kid! It’s funny you bring this up since I was recently thinking about how it does seem to be out of season in regards to the other sports at their respective games. Most sports at The Games do reflect the season they are in. You’re not going to play water polo in winter and you're not going to speed skate on ice in Summer. You could but it just doesn’t make any sense. Wrestling could go either way, but I prefer it in Summer. We have enough going on in February where we don’t need this thrown into the mix. Why it’s in this season, I do not know, but it likely goes back to not wanting to interfere with the college season. Or perhaps they wrestled outdoors a hundred years ago. I'm not old enough to remember that far back. 

Maybe Jason Bryant knows the answer. Speaking of JB, my Mets are about to mollywhop his Angels this weekend so it’s a good thing he’s out of town and time zones. Now I’m veering off topic so that means it’s time to wrap this up and move on with my day. Enjoy the weekend all, next week we crown champions and they better all be from America. Sixteen gold medals or we riot.