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Well, I’m back. Don’t ask. Let’s just say that February hasn’t exactly been kind to me. But now it’s March and that’s all behind me. So I tried to put on a Willy Wonka exhibit that failed miserably. It happens. Just move on. Somehow this edition became very heavy on New Jersey and that’s not my fault. I don’t think we got one question from someone not from the Garden State. Let’s find out! What made nj.com finally decide to stream states for free all of a sudden? I’ll hang up and listen…bye. Brandon from New Jersey Yeah, and thanks for the call. I thought they were free the last few years after a couple years of turbulent broadcasts that started with an awful year where it was on Track. I don’t want to rip anyone here, but you had eight mats and could only log in on one browser at a time. How was I supposed to navigate eight tabs at once? Especially when every time I did, it would take 30 seconds to load or I might have to sign in again at times. I don’t know why this question reminded me of that but it did. The next year it returned to its original home but under a new format that at least does the job. My only issue is that there’s no app for streaming devices so it’s either mirror the screen or use one of those awful web browsers they give you. At any rate, it’s still awesome and if you're reading this when it comes out, then the quarterfinals are only in an hour or so. Watch it! It’s free! What are your favorite conference tournament memories from over the years? Also, what are your least favorite conference tournament memories from over the years? Also, do you have any indifferent memories? Don’t share those last ones. They seem boring. Kevin Claunch from New Jersey It has to be the six Big Ten champs from New Jersey in 2019. It really was pretty cool and a culmination of a decade’s worth of really high-level guys coming out of the state. Just think, Sebastian Rivera and Anthony Cassar were probably the least recruited of the bunch and they beat the two biggest prospects of the decade in Spencer Lee and Gable Steveson. One is an Olympic champ and the other may be one in a few months. Do I have any indifferent memories? Probably when Michigan won the conference tournament a few years ago. Totally indifferent to it. Forgot it even happened. Seems everyone else did, too. My least favorite moment was something our next guest had to deal with personally. This week, @bryanhazard retired from coaching. The @GMUWrestling Hall of Famer had an illustrious coaching career at Robinson High School. Did you know that the frequently used cross-arm tilt is called “The Hazard” in many parts of the country? Kevin McGuigan from New Jersey Well, I did not know that. But a congrats is in order for the hazardous one on behalf of InterMat for his 28 years in coaching. You are free to go polish a boat in Mexico until you spot a barefoot Jason Bryant in the distance walking towards you. Since Big Tens are driving distance to Maryland this year, do we get #JaggerSession? No, I am not broadcasting this time. Only NJ states remain! Nick Kosko from New Jersey Driving distance for you maybe but I’m at the top of the state! It’s nearly four hours away! But seriously, I simply can’t make it. Home duties have me tied up at the moment so it’s Jaggervision all weekend here. And you bloody should be announcing it! They have multiple mat streams so I don’t see why each mat can have someone on the mic. Folks, if you haven’t watched Rutgers on Big Ten Plus (or Penn, Princeton, and various sports in the Atlantic County area) my man Nick has emerged as the voice of New Jersey sports. If we can’t get him next week in Maryland, then the NJ State Tournament is a fitting sendoff to the Winter of Kosko. I also caught him headbanging to System Of A Down seconds before the start of the Wisconsin dual a few weeks ago. Total pro. Should the NCAA finals go in weight order prior to the main event or mix the order further to build it like a fight/pro wrestling card? Rhino from New Jersey Oh, without a doubt like a fight card. It should’ve happened years ago. I don’t see the reason why not to do it. You’re going to confuse the fans and they won’t know the order? Please. I know the world is getting dumber by the day, but we’re not that bad yet. Just put a little graphic with the order with the rest of the graphics on the crawl. You don’t want to insult the wrestlers by saying they don't have a marquee matchup? The wrestlers should have bigger things to worry about anyway. Then at least put the top three or five matches last and do the rest in order. Is this the key to the sport breaking out? Of course not. But it builds excitement as the night goes on. It’s called quality television. I’ll teach you about it. Jags, my wise friend, O/U on AA's in Kansas City from NJ colleges is 2.5. Where is the smart (your) money going? Salty Walkon from New Jersey First off, my money is never smart. I’m a terrible gambler. But the number does seem to be on point. Rider and Princeton would need someone to get hot and sneak one in or you’re relying on Rutgers getting three in there. I’d still take the over because I’m a mark and want to cheer for my guys. Did Oklahoma State fumble the bag or did Iowa jump levels after the thorough ass-kicking from Penn State? JD Money from New Jersey Iowa won because they are simply a better team. Sure, they’ve had a weird year, but that was expected. They’re still the second-best team in my opinion and a performance like that is just what the doctor ordered for the Hawkeyes to have a solid postseason. Penn State has reached an absurd height of dominance right now. You know they will have six to eight guys in the semifinals on Friday night. All you can do is try to get there and beat them. Anything can happen in March. That’s why they wrestle the matches. Once again, we’ve reached the Burger King of Kings from New Jersey portion of the mailbag. Since we’re nearly out of time, I chose a fee to answer in rapid fire. Have you been to Iowa? Would you come to a dual here? No and yes. I’m told it’s the only way to truly understand Iowa fans. You must walk the streets of Iowa City Is it pronounced "Rut-geers" or "Rut-gahs"? Definitely Rutgahs. The trick is to say it almost like one syllable as gruff as you can. That’s Jersey perfection. What Jersey piece of culture is the rest of the country sleeping on? Gas station attendants. I seriously don’t know how this isn't a thing in literally the rest of the country. How do you talk to nonwrestling people to get them to come to a dual? Promise them punch and pie.

Yesterday, NCAA DI Conference Allocations were released. Initially, we responded with an article regarding ranked wrestlers who missed the allocation cut. Now, we’re getting into some general takeaways regarding the allocations. Some weights/conferences stood out immediately as ones where conferences appeared to get shorted and there are plenty of interesting situations that could arise depending on conference results. 1. 141 in the ACC only gets three bids Probably the first thing that caught my eye and some of my co-worker’s eyes were 141 lbs in the ACC. There are four wrestlers currently ranked in InterMat’s top-16 from the ACC. They only received three automatic bids to Kansas City. More interesting is that the ACC wrestlers at this weight that earned those bids were #4 Ryan Jack, #5 Lachlan McNeil, and NR Jack Gioffre. #14 Cole Matthews and #16 Tom Crook did not earn bids. There’s a world where all of these wrestlers likely compete in Kansas City, through three automatic bids and two at-large berths. I wouldn’t want to rely on that; however. 141 lbs already has seven ranked wrestlers who didn’t earn bids and only six at-large’s available. That’s before any upsets at the conference tournament. So, how did this happen? Because Crook only had 14 DI matches at 141 lbs, he didn’t qualify for an RPI. In November, Crook competed in two open tournaments at 149 lbs. Cole Matthews finished one slot under the needed RPI and was significantly under the benchmark in winning percentage. (.720 - .625). What I don’t like about Matthews missing it, in particular, is that it legitimizes the fact that wrestlers are oftentimes better off not wrestling tough matches. Matthews suffered four losses to wrestlers who finished the year ranked in the top-13 nationally. If you take those four off his record, he still comes up just shy of the needed winning percentage; but it’s close. Or substitute those losses for a couple of wins at a “Last Chance Qualifier” and he’s in good position. All year, I’ve been upset about good individual matchups not materializing. Injury and illness are difficult to avoid in wrestling and sometimes they rear their ugly heads. But other times, games are played. I don’t like the idea of punishing a wrestler who constantly answered the bell, as Matthews did. Your answer to my plight for Matthews may be “win more matches,” and I’m sure that’s his mindset. I’d imagine Matthews thinks he let a few get away to opponents he should’ve beaten. But, let’s not act as if he didn’t have a handful of quality wins. One of only two people to beat #2 Jesse Mendez, defeated #4 Ryan Jack a CKLV champion, and #5 Lachlan McNeil. Plus, he pinned Tom Crook, though that win suddenly doesn’t look good from a qualification standpoint, since Crook didn’t earn a bid. My opinion is that Matthews places top-three at ACC’s and takes matters into his own hands. At the end of the day, we’ll probably have the best guys in Kansas City, but I don’t like the precedent we’re working with when it comes to rewarding wrestlers for showing up as little as possible. 2. Changes in Initial Allocations Per Conference ACC = - 5 (33 to 28) Big 12 = -7 (64 to 57) Big Ten = +3 (85 to 88) EIWA = +8 (45 to 53) MAC = -1 (23 to 22) Pac-12 = +5 (19 to 24) SoCon = +2 (12 to 14) These are the changes from 2023 to 2024 for wrestlers who earned allocations for their conferences. Those 2023 numbers are strictly the initial allocations, not bids that had to be thrown back or anything like that. The biggest impact on a single conference was the improvement of Little Rock and subsequently, the allocations for the Pac-12. The Trojans were responsible for five allocations in 2024, which is exactly the overall number the league improved by from last year to this one. The ACC had a significant drop-off for a conference that typically is growing. We mentioned a few 141’s that were expected to earn bids. There was also another top-15 wrestler from the league who missed out on earning a bid (Holden Heller - 165). Then you consider that North Carolina and Virginia are both a bit younger than usual. With those points in mind, there shouldn’t be any long-term worries about the conference. 3. 174 lbs better be careful One of the most significant takeaways from the final weekend of the regular season was the injury to three-time NCAA champion Carter Starocci. At this time, we’re still not completely aware of just how serious his knee injury is. What can’t be disputed is that it looked bad and so didn’t Starocci’s reaction. Many people are anticipating Starocci not being able to complete the tournament. If Starocci gets the first seed, he’d have to win his first match in the quarterfinals to lock up a spot in the semis, and therefore, the top-six. With the Big Ten getting eight wrestlers in automatically, that would put him in Kansas City. If Starocci is unable to compete, at all, and injury defaults in back-to-back matches, that would leave him a match shy of the top-eight and needing an at-large berth. As things stand right now, there are five ranked wrestlers at 174 lbs and only four at-large berths. That doesn’t account for Starocci needing one and any other upsets that occur during conference weekend. For the rest of the weight class, get within qualification status! You really don’t want to be relying on an at-large at 74. 4. Teams with multiple wrestlers on the wrong side of the allocation bubble As I was putting together the list of ranked wrestlers who did not earn allocations for their conference, I noticed teams with multiple wrestlers listed. That makes me wonder whether these teams have someone familiar with the numerical portion of the process. If their wrestlers were close to hitting the benchmarks in one of the categories used, why didn’t they go to a Last Chance Qualifier event and try to pad the stats? I don’t love the idea of doing that, but it’s within the rules in this qualification process and only helps your wrestlers and your conference. 5. Watch what Iowa does All eyes are typically on anything that Iowa does, so why should conference entries be any different? Iowa has a couple of options at multiple weights (133, 149, 184, and 285 lbs). First and foremost, Caleb Rathjen (149) and Bradley Hill (285) both earned allocations for the Big Ten. If either of them do not enter the Big Ten Championships, their allocation is thrown into the at-large pool. The word out of Iowa City is that Rathjen should go, so that isn’t a concern. What happens at heavyweight remains to be seen. True freshman Ben Kueter has shown that he can probably go deep at nationals this year with wins over #11 Konner Doucet (Oklahoma State) during his last outing. All year, the Iowa staff has gone back and forth between Brody Teske and Cullan Schriever at 133 lbs. Neither earned an at-large, so nothing changes for the conference with either entrant. Of course, we also have 184 lbs. Iowa did not earn an allocation at the weight. Gabe Arnold has bumped up for key duals and fared very well at the weight. I don’t see Tom Brands throwing Arnold out there under these circumstances, but should he do so, Arnold would have to qualify by placement rather than getting an at-large. 6. The Ivy League earned 23 bids There will be plenty of changes to the allocation process next year with conference realignment and one wrestling-specific wrinkle is that the Ivy League teams will be qualifying directly through their conference - rather than through the EIWA. If the EIWA and Ivy split this year, you’d have the Ivy League with 23 automatic bids and the EIWA with 30. Those are pretty solid numbers for an EIWA that has been dominated by the Ivy schools, of late. When the announcement was made regarding this split, you hoped that this wouldn’t negatively impact either potential conference. With this year’s numbers, that looks like it’s not the case.

Heading into his final postseason wrestling for Oklahoma State, Daton Fix sat down with Ryan Holmes to discuss a variety of topics. Daton talks about why he came back for the extra year, keeping his weight down for the Olympic Trials, competing against Iowa and much more. For the full interview