Trump ruined Session 5 (surprisingly apolitical, presented provocatively because I'm a stinker)

[ugarles]

Based on my posting history, I don't think that it's a big mystery that I am an outlier (but not alone) on this board as a committed left-wing woke menace, but imo Trump's appearance last night ruined the Saturday afternoon session. I say this knowing that the Finals crowd collectively loved his appearance as did many (most? almost all? probably) of the wrestlers. THAT SAID...

The medal rounds on Saturday morning are one of my favorite sessions. It isn't the pageantry of the finals or the tension of the blood round or the pandemonium of the opening round, but it is overachievers trying to climb further up the ladder. It's top-seeded wrestlers trying to finish a wrecked season on a high. It's shocking matchups like Kasak-Shapiro. It's a blast.

I haven't seen this written about elsewhere,^ but the planning for his arrival at night security for the morning session was serious. You had to walk past a dog who was much more likely to be sniffing for weapons than drugs held by a guy in tactical gear. There was secret service everywhere, also in tactical gear.^^ That wasn't really the issue, though.

The issue was that they changed how they run the early session. Instead of having three mats, they had four. Instead of running the Consolation semis as a first-mat-open, then having 3/5/7 go weight-by-weight on three mats, they had the entire session run on four mats in a first-mat-open format as if we were in Fargo. As a Cornell guy, I had three wrestlers in the consolation semis (packed from 157-184) then those same three guys all wrestling for fifth (don't want to talk about it...) and they were repeatedly overlapping with each other. I'm sure it was worse for the Penn State fans, who covered half the bill for third place. 

Nobody seems to have talked about it online, but this was obviously a request/demand made by the Secret Service to the NCAA and ESPN. They wanted to run through the afternoon session as quickly as possible, clear the arena, then sweep it tip to tail before the President arrived in case anything got past security in the morning session.

I understand why they would do it, so i don't begrudge the security priority if Trump is going to come, but all things being the same, I'd rather have the guy invite the winners to the White House and watch from home so we can have a traditional Session 5.

 

^ I didn't look very hard...
^^ I assume all of this was even more pronounced for the evening session when he was present. It was certainly the case at the MMA event at MSG Trump went to with Musk and his cabinet-in-waiting.

[billyhoyle]

Why didn't they just start it earlier? Trump attending was good because it brought more eyeballs on the sport. 

[Dark Energy]

Eh, security was not an issue … yes took a bit longer to get in but glad they are being careful. For me, not worth a moment of complaining.
 

Yes, some overlap.  But not a big deal for me.  Small price to pay to have POTUS attend the championships.  A pretty damn big deal for ‘our’ sport.  Great recognition.  High honor.
 

Note, I’m referring to the role of POTUS.  Not the actual person in the role now.

[Jason Bryant]

Session 5 was changed to this format last year. We did it this way last week in Providence for D3 as well.

Didn’t have anything to do with 47.

[PUWrestler]

This is what the NCAA has on its website for this year's tourney. Notice Session 5 lists only 3 mats:

Saturday
10 a.m.	Session 5- Three Mat Configuration Wrestle-Back Semifinals on all three mats. Followed by third, fifth and seventh place medal round matches.
6 p.m.	Session 6- One Championship Mat Championship weight class finals. Individual weight class awards.

https://www.ncaa.com/championships/wrestling/d1/championships-schedule

 

[goheels1812]

15 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

Session 5 was changed to this format last year. We did it this way last week in Providence for D3 as well.

Didn’t have anything to do with 47.

I was thinking this too. I remembered last year the cadence was different. It’s purely a preference thing- but I really, really dislike it for what it’s worth. I personally think every weight should wrestle 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 simultaneously. And the weights should go 1 by 1. I’m preaching to the choir here, but even taking 3rd and being an all American is a once in a lifetime crowning achievement. It should be treated as such.
 

It does feel cheap and watered down when you have heavyweights wrestling for 7/8 beside 133s wrestling for 5/6 and so on. At one point in the medal matches the 125s went flying off the mat and Shane/Trent made a joke the refs better grab them before they get run over by a heavyweight. Just doesn’t seem right to me. 
 

Edit to add: solely talking about D1. I know D2&D3 logistics are completely different. 

Edited Sunday at 08:30 PM by goheels1812

[ugarles]

22 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

Session 5 was changed to this format last year. We did it this way last week in Providence for D3 as well.

Didn’t have anything to do with 47.

hmm. you're better connected than me, so... why would they ruin the early session!?

[Scouts Honor]

35 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

Session 5 was changed to this format last year. We did it this way last week in Providence for D3 as well.

Didn’t have anything to do with 47.

i was gonna say, i thought they did this last year 

[gimpeltf]

41 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

Didn’t have anything to do with 47.

What about 45?

[de4856]

Trump making Wrestling Great Again 

[Major Kong]

Trump was on his way to being an undefeated NCAA 4x, and multiple Olympic champ, but for those pesky bone spurs.

[Caveira]

29 minutes ago, ugarles said:

hmm. you're better connected than me, so... why would they ruin the early session!?

Better question?  Why make it political?  

[ugarles]

7 minutes ago, Caveira said:

Better question?  Why make it political?  

let's keep it simple: the NCAA isn't going to say "don't come" - especially because the crowd loved it.

[Caveira]

9 minutes ago, ugarles said:

let's keep it simple: the NCAA isn't going to say "don't come" - especially because the crowd loved it.

I mean.  The crowd did seem to love it.  I guess I don’t understand your argument.   

[Crotalus]

Why didn't they just start it earlier? Trump attending was good because it brought more eyeballs on the sport. 

Did it? I'm at my in-laws for dinner, and none of them even knew the NCAA tournament was this past weekend. Didn't see anything on ESPNs main page or on social media, either. He was only there to make a spectacle, as that's all he is good for.

[Scouts Honor]

the wrestlers had fun too 

[Scouts Honor]

[ugarles]

10 minutes ago, Caveira said:

I mean.  The crowd did seem to love it.  I guess I don’t understand your argument.   

i'm saying "i understand why they do it, even though i personally hate it for overtly political reasons i don't want to argue about. on the non-political side, it ruins a part of the tournament that i enjoyed."

though even that might not be the case, per @Jason Bryant.

Edited Sunday at 09:35 PM by ugarles

[WrestlingRasta]

It’s no secret on the NWT section I’m no fan of the current president.  Last night was one of the most significant moments in wrestling, ever, in this country.  The ‘bookends’ turned out to work phenomenal.   No one can doubt he was there to be part of the dog and pony show of one last horrah for Steveson, and it brought serious eyeballs to the sport. The fact that an Air Force Lieutenant pulls off the biggest upset ever in the NCAA, and then salutes the President of the United States, followed with a hug with the flag around his shoulders.  It’s a huge moment. Absolutely huge moment for wrestling.  
 

Wrestling is a blue collar, grit and hard work, you get what you earn not a damn thing is handed to you, lifestyle.  No one votes for you for all-American, you go get it.  Of course it’s a conservative leaning base.  But everyone can respect what was on display last night.  From the 184 all the way through.  
 

A work buddy texted me right after one of the less than exciting one takedown matches.  He never watches wrestling doesn’t know anything about it other than asking me how my peeps are doing.   He texted “holy *I poop my pants, don't laugh at me* these guys are in world class condition”.  There were those kinds of eyeballs all over the country. 

[BigRedFan]

There is an article about this in today's NYTimes (gift article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/us/politics/trump-musk-ncaa-wrestling-philadelphia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6E4.xMoA.rchuevMizbyJ&smid=url-share); it's mostly about the reaction of Trump fans to the ever-present Musk.

This stood out for me:

Quote

“Not a big fan of Elon,” said Blaize Cabell, a 32-year-old wrestling coach from Independence, Iowa, who nonetheless remains a big fan of the president. He said he viewed Mr. Musk’s career as a businessman as a series of failures and buyouts and said that the billionaire was “making a lot of callous cuts,” citing the Department of Agriculture. Earlier this month, the department fired thousands of experts and then scrambled to hire them back.

The cognitive dissonance...

[ugarles]

look, i can't stop the rest of you from making the thread political but i am begging you not to! a lot of my mental health is tied to knowing as little as possible about the personal and poltical lives of people onlline who share my hobbies.

[Scouts Honor]

lol

[Caveira]

3 minutes ago, ugarles said:

look, i can't stop the rest of you from making the thread political but i am begging you not to! a lot of my mental health is tied to knowing as little as possible about the personal and poltical lives of people onlline who share my hobbies.

The mods won’t let this become political.   Unless you move it to the dark side nwt section.    Also your very first sentence was political.   Soooooooo.  

[Holtfan]

28 minutes ago, ugarles said:

look, i can't stop the rest of you from making the thread political.....

And yet you started this thread blaming a change of format on political stunts.  

[MidwestMan]

So what did the POTUS cost, me the tax payer, for this "see me, see me" moment last night?  For a guy that's so concerned about reducing waste in govt spending, he sure doesn't have any problem spending my dime to use AirForce 1 and all the cost of for the security to have his "narcissist" spot light.  I thought for a second the channel switched to FOX news.