trojanhorse Posted October 9 Posted October 9 I know we have had this discussion many times, but as colleges are aligning with new conferences, who should start/restart programs in the following regions: Northeast Southeast Central Northwest Southwest My suggestions would be NE - Syracuse, in the ACC now and it would provide more exposure and earning opportunities. Not to mention the local CC in Syracuse just started men's and women's programs. So that would help feed. SE - Staying in the ACC, Clemson. Helping to grow college wrestling in the south would be vital. They have had success many years ago, a restart could be beneficial and help grow a conference that has been doing well as of late. Central - Colorado, state rich in wrestling. Now in the Big XII, they can have the benefit or more revenue sharing and have matches with schools much closer. SW - Arizona, keep the rivalry with ASU going in another sport. They would be full members of the Big XII and could compete for recruits on the west coast NW - Oregon (I am dreaming, I know). They are now Big 10, that is huge for revenue generating and TV exposure. In state rivalry with ORST and just imagine the mats and uniforms they would come up with. 2
Warm Up Champ Posted October 9 Posted October 9 NW needs to bring back previously cut programs. Recently this included University of Oregon, Boise State, and Portland State. Going further back this would also include University of Washington and Washington State. Not too long ago the Pac-10 conference included Arizona State, Oregon State, Cal Poly, Stanford, Bakersfield, University of Oregon, Portland State, Boise State, Cal Fullerton, and Cal Davis. 5 of those teams no longer exist. 1
Jeffm Posted October 9 Posted October 9 My suggestions University of North Texas Tarleton State UT-Arlington *no football Wichita State *no football University of Denver *no football Nebraska-Omaha Boise State
ScottishSteel Posted October 10 Posted October 10 My Southeast ACC representative choice would be Georgia Tech or Florida St/Miami; ACC school in a state where high school talent is taking off Irrationally proud former WPIAL wrestler No Scotland, No Party . . . Go Beavs
Simpleman424 Posted October 10 Posted October 10 Cincinnati lost their wrestling program 40 years ago…they need to get their program back. An insane amount of talent in the region too. I wouldn’t give up my Ohio State fandom but they would be equals. 1
PookieNacui Posted October 11 Posted October 11 Would love to see: USC - everyone hates USC so they would be born a great villain. Tulsa - so much wrestling happens around Tulsa it’s wild they don’t have a wrestling team. Boise State bring it back - was a nice program and Idaho has enough wrestling talent to support it. BYU bring it back - they have really good attendance across most sports so would likely get good attendance. Plus multiple wrestling programs already have the same types of restrictions BYU has. Georgia Tech - engineering schools love leverage and wrestling is growing in Georgia 2
Tyler Perry Posted October 11 Posted October 11 I’d go Northeast: UConn South/southeast: Florida Central: (Kinda) Western Kentucky Northwest: Oregon Southwest: Arizona
ScottishSteel Posted October 11 Posted October 11 11 hours ago, PookieNacui said: Would love to see: USC - everyone hates USC so they would be born a great villain. Tulsa - so much wrestling happens around Tulsa it’s wild they don’t have a wrestling team. Boise State bring it back - was a nice program and Idaho has enough wrestling talent to support it. BYU bring it back - they have really good attendance across most sports so would likely get good attendance. Plus multiple wrestling programs already have the same types of restrictions BYU has. Georgia Tech - engineering schools love leverage and wrestling is growing in Georgia Definitely on board w/ Boise coming back 1 Irrationally proud former WPIAL wrestler No Scotland, No Party . . . Go Beavs
Simpleman424 Posted October 11 Posted October 11 I’m surprised Michigan doesn’t have a wrestling program, you’d think they would. 1 1
2001Hokie Posted October 11 Posted October 11 15 hours ago, PookieNacui said: BYU bring it back - they have really good attendance across most sports so would likely get good attendance. Plus multiple wrestling programs already have the same types of restrictions BYU has. I'm actually very surprised there isn't more of a push for BYU. There are a lot of Mormon wrestlers, and culturally, the dedication wrestling takes is something that would fit them well. The relatively clean lifestyle needed to stay at the top of your game also hits right for the way the school already is. Maybe that'll be Cael's retirement plan...
Simpleman424 Posted October 11 Posted October 11 27 minutes ago, 2001Hokie said: I'm actually very surprised there isn't more of a push for BYU. There are a lot of Mormon wrestlers, and culturally, the dedication wrestling takes is something that would fit them well. The relatively clean lifestyle needed to stay at the top of your game also hits right for the way the school already is. Maybe that'll be Cael's retirement plan... Cael wouldn’t risk it unless his roster transferred with him…
ionel Posted October 11 Posted October 11 2 hours ago, Simpleman424 said: I’m surprised Michigan doesn’t have a wrestling program, you’d think they would. Could one of the downtrodden Iowa programs jump in the portal and transfer en masse? North Texas did it in football jumping across state line so ... .
2001Hokie Posted October 12 Posted October 12 7 hours ago, Simpleman424 said: Cael wouldn’t risk it unless his roster transferred with him… Well technically he never took his mission...this could be his mission! 1
ionel Posted October 12 Posted October 12 16 minutes ago, 2001Hokie said: Well technically he never took his mission...this could be his mission! Thought dodgeball was his mission. 1 .
Simpleman424 Posted October 12 Posted October 12 6 hours ago, ionel said: Could one of the downtrodden Iowa programs jump in the portal and transfer en masse? North Texas did it in football jumping across state line so ... I suppose they could…especially for football. Lord knows they don’t have any limits there…
Simpleman424 Posted October 12 Posted October 12 49 minutes ago, 2001Hokie said: Well technically he never took his mission...this could be his mission! 32 minutes ago, ionel said: Thought dodgeball was his mission. I’d prefer not speak on his “mission”…lol
ionel Posted October 12 Posted October 12 6 minutes ago, Simpleman424 said: I’d prefer not speak ... 1 .
Simpleman424 Posted October 12 Posted October 12 18 minutes ago, ionel said: Things are more simple that way… 1
TexRef Posted October 12 Posted October 12 On 10/11/2026 at 11:14 AM, 2001Hokie said: I'm actually very surprised there isn't more of a push for BYU. There are a lot of Mormon wrestlers, and culturally, the dedication wrestling takes is something that would fit them well. The relatively clean lifestyle needed to stay at the top of your game also hits right for the way the school already is. Maybe that'll be Cael's retirement plan... BYU won't bring it back. They don't compete on Sunday and as a member of the Big 12 most duals are on Friday & Sunday, along with tournaments. On another note...Cael's dad Steve, applied for the BYU job when it was open. BYU went with Mark Schultz instead. Steve said that his boys woukd never go to BYU! BYU never invested in the program, as they were never fully funded and only had 1 part time assistant coach for the majority of the time.
TexRef Posted October 12 Posted October 12 On 10/9/2026 at 10:54 AM, trojanhorse said: I know we have had this discussion many times, but as colleges are aligning with new conferences, who should start/restart programs in the following regions: Northeast Southeast Central Northwest Southwest My suggestions would be NE - Syracuse, in the ACC now and it would provide more exposure and earning opportunities. Not to mention the local CC in Syracuse just started men's and women's programs. So that would help feed. SE - Staying in the ACC, Clemson. Helping to grow college wrestling in the south would be vital. They have had success many years ago, a restart could be beneficial and help grow a conference that has been doing well as of late. Central - Colorado, state rich in wrestling. Now in the Big XII, they can have the benefit or more revenue sharing and have matches with schools much closer. SW - Arizona, keep the rivalry with ASU going in another sport. They would be full members of the Big XII and could compete for recruits on the west coast NW - Oregon (I am dreaming, I know). They are now Big 10, that is huge for revenue generating and TV exposure. In state rivalry with ORST and just imagine the mats and uniforms they would come up with. I would say that Texas Tech would be a good pick in Texas. They are members of the Big 12 (UNT & the other Texas schools are not in a conference that sponsors wrestling). If Arizona & Colorado added, that may help in applying pressure to Tech.
2001Hokie Posted October 12 Posted October 12 30 minutes ago, TexRef said: BYU won't bring it back. They don't compete on Sunday and as a member of the Big 12 most duals are on Friday & Sunday, along with tournaments. On another note...Cael's dad Steve, applied for the BYU job when it was open. BYU went with Mark Schultz instead. Steve said that his boys woukd never go to BYU! BYU never invested in the program, as they were never fully funded and only had 1 part time assistant coach for the majority of the time. Yeah I knew about Steve being passed up for Schultz, though I didn't assume that would run so deep as to disregard the university forever since he wrestled there and it's held at such a high regard by Mormons. Regarding the Sunday thing, it's definitely something to work out for the random tournaments. I wouldn't assume it's a big issue for duals as that's pretty easy to accommodate for one team and could be negotiable as they restart. The Big 12 and NCAA tournaments aren't on Sunday anyway. Hurdles, but not walls. 1
Former158 Posted October 12 Posted October 12 Any new program should be mens and womens---this is the future. Division 1 Texas Florida and Florida State Georgia Notre Dame USC UCLA Berkley University of Washington Oregon--come on Phil Knight SUNY- Stony Brook Colorado Syracuse Division III- Lots of options for enrollment driven schools- If you can prove 30-40 tuition paying students would come, the program pays for itself---even if each student gets a 50% scholarship---see
Warm Up Champ Posted October 12 Posted October 12 5 hours ago, TexRef said: BYU won't bring it back. They don't compete on Sunday and as a member of the Big 12 most duals are on Friday & Sunday, along with tournaments. On another note...Cael's dad Steve, applied for the BYU job when it was open. BYU went with Mark Schultz instead. Steve said that his boys woukd never go to BYU! BYU never invested in the program, as they were never fully funded and only had 1 part time assistant coach for the majority of the time. They also had Chael Sonnen for a short stint. 1
Braeden Simoneaux New York Military Academy, Louisiana Class of 2027 Committed to Wyoming Projected Weight: 184, 197
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