1988 NCAA Finals Order

[Alces Alces Gigas]

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Was just watching some recently posted matches on YouTube and noticed that during the 126lb final ( Martin over Penrith) that that was the opening bout of the night. The when I watched Couvo win 118, they confirmed it by saying Iowa's title chances were dashed when Martin won in the opening bout.

Does anybody remember if and why bout order was switched up?

[KCMO2]

Penrith's ankle monitor went off if he was out past 7pm.

[Jim L]

That seems strange as dual meets always went from lightest to heaviest at least through the end of the 1980s (well into the 1990s, I think)

They did not start changing the order of the NCAA finald until some time in the 2010s (was the first time this was done for the Taylor-Dake final?)

It seems likely that the broadcast crew messed up and gave information out of order when they were adding commentary on matches that had already occurred. Before EPSN started broadcasting the finals they were pretty low quality events. Everything was compressed into 1 hour and many of the finals not shown at all.