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always knew he'd be behind bars one way or another

OKLAHOMA CITY (April 2, 2025) – The National Duals Invitational, a groundbreaking $1 million collegiate wrestling event sponsored byPaycom, has announced the qualification process for the inaugural 16-team bracket. Featuring top programs from across the country, this high-stakes tournament will bring together elite competition and unprecedented prize money to the BOK Center in Tulsa this fall. Automatic entry will be awarded to the top 12 teams in the final 2025 NCAA Division I standings: Penn State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Cornell, NC State, Northern Iowa, Illinois, Virginia Tech and Michigan. To secure their spots, these 12 teams must complete their participation agreements by April 15. Final teams will be listed on the website as they are confirmed. “While we know this is not an accurate representation of dual team rankings, we believe it will ensure that the event features some of the best competition in the country,” said Matt Surber, Tournament Director. “I’m excited to see additional participation as we grow the sport of wrestling.” The remaining spots will be filled through a random drawing on April 24 from teams that finished 13-24 in the NCAA standings. The teams competing for these final spots are Purdue, Missouri, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, Little Rock, Arizona State, Stanford, West Virginia, Navy, Wyoming, South Dakota State, Indiana, Maryland and Oregon State. The premier 16-team event will feature a total purse of more than $1 million. The top eight teams will earn payouts, with the winning squad walking away with $200,000. The second- and third-place teams will earn $150,000, while fourth place earns $75,000. Fifth through eighth place payouts will be: $50,000, $40,000, $25,000, and $20,000, respectively. All participating teams will receive $20,000 for attending. Thirty-four-time NCAA champion Oklahoma State will serve as the host school. This event will be held at BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., on Nov. 15-16. Learn more at nationaldualsinvitational.com.

It has only been two years and I am only looking at the NCAA tournament, so any conclusions are going to be a bit shaky. And bonus point scoring is notoriously volatile from year to year. Anyway... I have bonus by type going back to 1988. The only significant rule changes I can think of (other than the 3-point TD) over that time that affect bonus are changes in near fall possibilities. But I do not think they have a significant impact. The 2-point years are in blue (highlighted) and the 3-point years are in orange (faint). And I use percentage of matches rather than raw numbers because the number of contested matches was highly variable prior to 1998 (ranging from 547 to 636). Major Decisions With the advent of the 3-point TD, major decisions jumped last year and this, but they "jumped" from historically low levels. When looked at through the broader trend (dotted line) all they really did is return to the trend. It seems like the 3-point TD has had little effect on the amount of majors at the NCAA tournament so far. Pin Falls PF are generally down and have stayed that way with the 3-point TD. I have theorized in the past that this is a direct result of matches ending sooner in TF before they can become PF in the 3-point TD era. For now, I am sticking with this idea even though proof is thin. Tech Falls Now this is where we see a pretty big impact. I put two trend lines in all the graphs. The highlighted one is the trend without factoring in 2024 or 2025. For MD and PF you cannot tell that there are two lines because they are on top of each other. But for TF adding in the two years of 3-point TD significantly changes the trend upward. It is clear to me that the immediate effect of the 3-point TD is an appreciable increase in TF. Did the 3-Point TD "Work"? I also think (without the data to back it up) that this is (weak) proof that the desired effect of the 3-point TD was achieved. There are more TDs relative to trend. If it were simply the case that the same number of TD were occurring but 11-14 point MDs were now 15+ point TFs, and PF were being turned into TF, both with the same number of TD as before, then there would be a decrease in MD (there is not) and a decrease in PF (there is, but it also fits the trend). NOTE: What the hell happened in 2006? An absurd 16.9% of matches at the NCAA tournament ended in PF? What an outlier.

I find the disconnect in so many of these comments entertaining. We think it is good for the guy who got paid at the same time we think it is bad that the schools got them paid.

The framing of virtuous Penn State. So fun. This is a dirty game now, fellas, and PSU is playing it as much as anybody else.

So is the definition of a "so called expert" anyone that has a differing opinion than your own? So, if you say they will be fine, are you the so called expert or are is it those who say he gets worked? I am just trying to figure out who the experts are on here that I can trust.

I had T-shirts made for my youth club years ago that read: 'We Don't Take The Best. We Make The Best.'

No Johny Hendricks ability to get pinned and not get pinned? /

Hmmm

I think the I like the 3 point TD because, to me, it feels that TDs should have more value. A wrestler who gets an actual TD, should be ahead of an opponent who "just" got two escapes. I also believe that it promotes bigger comebacks. A wrestler down by 3-4 points a that start of third period has a reasonable chance of winning, if he is much better on his feet and especially if his opponent is gassing. I don't necessarily buy that it increases stalling in 3rd if the wrestler has a lead. Wrestler are always going to "protect" a lead and shut down their offense if they are ahead late in the match.

Only one Olympic redshirt? Stevan Micic is not impressed! How about a Bird Flu year?

Slow'MF'Clap

Volk and Flynn are both decent sized 125 pounders (at least not undersized). My guess is Gopher strength coach, Scott McWilliams works his magic and puts 8 pounds on Flynn's frame.

Brooks better be scared to bump up. He only gets his underhooks from one deity but Yoshida gets his underhooks from Buddha AND Allah. 2 gods > 1 the math speaks for itself

True Legend! "I'm your Huckleberry"

What could psu have done better to help starocci win the hodge? if they scheduled a tougher early season opponent like okst, or uni, or Iowa state carter would potentially have another bonus win over top 5ish competition. What if they scheduled a tough opponent late in the season instead of American. What if they didn’t have such a weak early season schedule. Lesser early season opponents that did not qualify for NCAAs Hoose drexel white American karpinski army daily Mich st ebert binghamton willis ar little rock Second question. If they went to a real Xmas tourney like Cklv/scuffle/midlands he would have 5 ish more chances at getting bonus point victory against higher quality competition. what if carter was 35 and 0 with 8 more bonus victories. That would have upped all his stats and made this closer race tip more in his favor. That would bump his bonus % above Wyatt and likely help with strength of schedule. It may also make mm look better but I suspect psu fans would prefer mm to have won over Wyatt.

@scourge165 -- The problem with Canada's milk. The agreement says Canada must let a certain amount of U.S. dairy at a low tariff (7.5%). This is the tariff-rate quota (TRQ). Anything over that gets hit with the 241% tariff. The quota is an agreement about volume, not about who handles it. Canada controls the permits and gives them to its own processors, not U.S. entities. Think about a chef with his own chicken farm. Why is he going to hassle with importing cheap chickens from another country? Canada gives the permits to processors that don't need US milk. So yeah the US is not paying the 241% tariff but this is because Canada will not allow an open market for US milk. Does that help?

Just relentlessly posting the same bit, over and over until we break. Iowa-style posting.

who even cares about the season? Now that the team aspect of the sport has been bastardized beyond recognition lets enjoy the ugly little games that took its place!

Pretty sure.

That means they're driving thru Ohio. Tom Ryan's hiding in the bushes with one of those police spike strips laid across the highway.

He wouldnt but he could. Fly is just showing a chart of 30 guys you keep. Rin at 125 cause he's one of the 3 best that can make that weight if Sprat gets hurt.

So what you are saying is it is n't fair that the US charge equal tariffs on other countries that they impose on us. That's a tall order to substantiate. mspart

Rocco Welsh stated in his recent interview he’d been in contact with Duke about coming and excited about being teammates. Ryder will likely end up at Oklahoma State, but what better place to go to get back at the place who just outright replaced you than Ohio State? How sweet would it be for you to beat and finish higher then the guy brought in to replace you doing it at the place he gave up on in the first place. Ohio State could use both Ryder and Sealey.

Welsh to PSU.... Ryder out to Ok State.... Next where does Thompson go? Simple dominoes.

Fixed it for ya there RV. mspart

Technically would need to get a medical waiver for 2024 though, right? (But seems like he would meet the requirements)

Refusing to make temporary sacrifices to upgrade your life implies privilege.

Not bad, I have a pretty sweet Ninja Tater, but I will keep this one in the docket for special events.

You know how most people earn high paying jobs……through hard work and sacrifice. I took his post above to say that he has been able to purchase the cars he has purchased through his decisions and actions, rather than griping about not making enough money. The wonderful thing about America is that you can in fact make it, anyone can. It’s all about your determination, drive, decisions and actions. Yes some people are going to have some advantages that others don’t have. That’s life. But you can’t talk about those born with the silver spoon, without talking about those who were born in the ghetto, but worked there way into being able to buy a mansion as an adult. The actions, decisions, and determination of those who haven’t made it is not the responsibility of those who have taken actions and decisions that have allowed them to make it. And that is another beautiful thing about America.

"We build it, we don't buy it" People should absolutely take that as shots fired, and Manning has a great point. Go Big Red.

I'll play. 125: Robinson, Lilledahl, Spratley, Ventresca 133: Crookham, Ayala, Byrd, Ono 141: Mendez, Hardy, Blaze, Vombaur 149: Henson, SVN, Watters, Swiderski 157: Shapiro, Kasak, Taylor, Blaze 165: Mesenbrink, Caliendo, Lockett, Steed 174: Haines, Facundo, Kennedy, Wask 184: McEnelly, Ferrari, Welsh/Ryder, Norman 197: Barr, Merrill, Ferrari, Little 285: Bastida, Trumble, Keuter, Taylor

This aged pretty well... Nailed most of em'.

Going up two weights?

Madmardigan rides again! mspart

here are my thoughts on the whole sich: tom ryan sees a nationally ranked and former AA stud in CK. RW has a redshirt to burn. so why force CK out? i felt like RW got a god draw last year. there is a chance he doesn't even AA if the bracket was actually set up correctly. but because of luck, he comes out a finalist as a true freshman. if RW would have wrestled this year there is no way he matches or beats his last year's performance and he transfers anyways. then you would have people saying, "they should have redshirted RW and let him mature a bit more. we already had a former AA in CK that could have got the job done. "

A couple of interesting points you make here- First, in 2023 Worlds when Aitmukhan won his Senior world title @ 92kg, Yoshida was in that bracket (as was Azarpira- more on that later). Yoshida was teched in the Semis by Nurmagomedov 10-0 and also teched by Zahid Valencia in the bronze medal match 11-0. Funny enough, I really thought that tournament was Zahid's to lose after his win over Azarpira in the 2nd round- he wrestled like a man possessed. His next match with Nurmagomedov in quarters was disappointing and really came down to one exchange where Zahid got behind in standing position and was unable to get the takedown (I need to watch that match again). Given the above, more questions . . . Has Yoshida not only jumped weights but also jumped levels? "We'll see" is where I stand Is Zahid our guy at 86kg? Is Atimukhan really as good as his results indicate as Truzzcat pointed out above? He wasn't competitive against Snyder and gassed and lost to Jay Aiello at Kunayev in 2024 so . . .

I think you're onto a useful connection here. I'd just tweak it a bit: a pin is analagous to a KO, and a tech fall is analagous to a TKO. With the latter, you technically knock your opponent down more times, but with the former, you knock them down for good. It's decisive. I wonder if people in the boxing community argue that a TKO is the more dominant finish than the KO. (Real question.)

I was on top of those numbers, but then they got the best of me.

No Abbas Jadidi ability to have a snack during a match??

And no Larry Owings double jointed ability?

The fact that Ethen is transferring and Kal tweeted out that he is not, leads me to believe it’s some kind of grad school thing. Maryland doesn’t have a degree program in his field or something like that. I bet that happens more often than we realize. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Horrifying as the concept is, I do sort of like the idea of AJ getting stuck on the bench behind Barr for 3 years...

Last year I had to use a funny avatar because you predicted Clayton Whiting!

It should go without saying that you take anything Minnow says with a block of salt. I'm just glad some other team is having the Eye of So-Wrong turning it's baleful gaze on another team.

There could not be a funnier situation in the history of wrestling forums then AJ going to Penn State or Okie State.

Carter said recently he would go 86

Cold blooded!

Contend with my argument then. If pins are worth more and you're the most dominant wrestler, why would you choose not to get a pin? You wouldn't. If you are dominant enough that you can get pins consistently, you will get pins consistently.