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ALL PRAISE BOB DOLE

It’s hard to put into words what Coach meant to so many of us. He was a great man who impacted more lives than he probably ever realized. Not just the best wrestlers, not just the standouts, but every single one of us who stepped on the mat for him. If you wrestled for Coach, you were changed. Whether you saw it then or not. Truth is, most of us didn’t realize it at the time. It wasn’t until we got older, faced real life, real struggles, that it all started to make sense. In one of my darkest hours, Coach said something to me that I wasn’t expecting. Simple words, but they stuck. They helped me more than he will ever know. That’s just who he was. He didn’t just teach wrestling. He helped make us men. Rest easy, Coach. And thank you.

So Endene was the player to be named later in the Nasir Bailey/Jordan Williams trade?

Seeding committee had one job, don’t put Davino/blaze and Jax/seidel on the same side

Executive orders can't make up rules for the NCAA or anyone else. They only instruct federal agencies how to implement and enforce existing laws. The actual order instructs agencies to hunt for "fraudulent NIL schemes," prohibit federal funds from being used in NIL or revenue sharing or to pay coaches, then goes on to list a variety of things meant to establish rules - which he can't do and are the very things that courts have ruled to have violated the rights of the athletes. It's laughable on many fronts, but the idea that schools are syphoning off research grant money to pay coaches and/or players is down right insane. Hell, the majority of the listed items are things that already occur, such as reporting on participation and finances, with the rest being so vague that it amounts to nothing other than an admission that the administration doesn't understand the structure and rules that are in place. Read it for yourself: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/04/urgent-national-action-to-save-college-sports/ It's nonsensical, but it gets people talking about something other than wars and pedophiles.

You people are a bunch of weirdos about your opinions on this guy. Things like "how he's treating this sport"...like he desecrated a church or something. He has the right to come in as sharp and in shape as he sees fit or as an unprepared slob, who gives a shit. He's participating in a sport at the level and amount he sees fit. And will still be 99.999 percent better of all of us bums on here. Has he made some questionable logistical decisions, maybe. But, who knows what this kid went through from the age of 5 to 22 as a wrestler. Most people are fried by the sport after college. That's a lot of miles, practices, change of locations. Besides a world title he's won everything. If he enjoys going it or can put some change in his pocket doing more power to him. He owes wrestling nothing.

You guys are getting way off topic. Right now we're talking about how 6th is better than 3rd and 2nd is worse than 4th, etc.

This is the stupidest storyline imaginable.

It wasn't the biggest robbery of the hour. He got stopped from probably scoring by the action being stopped. Davino got robbed of an actual score.

Close. The original InterMat was started by Tom Owens in 1995. He created databases that tied wrestler IDs to their names and had an entry/import database that was a bit convoluted to someone who didn't build it. In the early days, he put everything behind the paywall, since college sports sites weren't super prevalent at the time and Sports Information offices were still faxing and rarely e-mailing them out. There was a lot of manual entry in the early years. Tom also had a pretty robust webstore, which sold gear. Tom also used that database for The Predicament, giving the Iowa site the same kind of infrastructure. Tom sold the site to the NWCA, with Brute as co-owner, in 2004. He stayed on for a year and then stepped away. The NWCA hired me in the summer of 2005 and I took over operation of the site under the NWCA from 2005-2008. After the prevalence of those school sites, Tom didn't have the dual results fully paywalled after that, making dual scores free and basic tournament results free, usually linking to brackets he'd scanned or PDFs that were attached. The deep dive profiles and feature articles and recruiting rankings were the only things paywalled. After the three wrestlers died in 1997, the NCAA made sweeping rule changes and the NWCA developed and patented the weight management program. One of the byproducts of that was the recording of results along with the weigh-in data. On NWCAonline, there was a separate database system called the NWCA scorebook. By this time, Tom's original database was starting to lose its relevance for full season results, since the scorebook was supposed to have them. Merging the databases was a bit wonky, but the dual meet entry portion was still part of the InterMat site even after I left for Wrestling 411 after the 2008 season. This is where we get into the crossover discussion. One of my nightly tasks was entering the dual meet results - manually - through the old database since the coaches and SIDs were often 2-5 days behind logging that stuff into the scorebook. To have it "timely" and to keep InterMat "in the lead" with results, I'd spend hours updating results from my apartment, my buddy's house, from the bar (if that bar had wifi). It even prompted my best friend to say "What bad D3 dual are you updating now," as I cracked open a Yuengling Lager at his coffee table. I also had a freelance budget where I'd pay people like the Pirate to help me enter results on those heavy weekends. I had 2-3 people that were assigned certain duals/leagues, so we could attack that data better. There was another website that would wait until I took all the results from my e-mail and from scouring websites nightly and just straight copy them, in order, every night. When I inquired about it, the response was "results aren't proprietary!" as if it was a defense for them just straight ripping off my hours of work. Sure, the results themselves aren't proprietary, but rather the display. So no matter what, the hard work you put in, sometimes as part of your job, sometimes on your own (like my old Virginia-based Mat Talk iteration) will be ripped off, copied, and often presented as "better." I've been using a lot of AI tools to help code operation systems, portals, and to tie in my long-running historical research and logging of results that have never shown up on the internet and some that have. I've had to institute various types of protections to try to make sure that doesn't get scraped and just ripped on to someone else's site. So from a perspective of someone that's put in countless paid and unpaid hours chronicling and displaying results and placement data for the sport the last 30 years, I can side with WS to where their work should be compensated and when almost the same data shows up on another side, nearly instantaneously, it's like "why are we cannibalizing ourselves?" I used WrestleStat one year for my Preview Guide. It was good data, but it also didn't align fully with some things the qualification process needed. They've gotten so much better with their results over the years. Dan and Greg are great guys and work tirelessly because the sport needs it. They deserve and have earned our support and our consumer dollar. Sites like baseball-reference have paid staff. They have people that are paid for that work, which enables them to offer it, with their business model, free to a degree. Major college sports also have requirements for live stats, giving the NCAA a repository of live data that they sell that API to CBS, ESPN, Fox, all the sports sites. In college hockey, they also require live scoring, so sites like College Hockey Inc., USCHO, and CHN - sites similar in scope to what we have with Flo, InterMat, et al - pay for that API to display scores on their sites in near live time. Wrestling does not fully have that and the NCAA doesn't require it for wrestling, since their Genius/NCAA Live Stats software can't really get a good ROI on the R&D it would take for them to build that for wrestling and have enough paid schools to justify building it out. We have too many nuances - matches that don't count, team competitions, open competitions, invitational team-scored competitions. So many variables that aren't like team sports where it's "Team A vs. Team B" - go. I still hope for a day that we can have official results from an NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA sponsored repository, but until then, we'll have where it lives. I have my own results backend and historical backend. I don't market it. I put it places where I can quickly access it, but I also don't want the time I spent building those pages and formatting and organizing that data to be ripped off. I also pay the Pirate an annual 'license fee' to use the results he sends out and compiles on his own time, because that has value. So yes, I'm using someone else's compilation for things, but I'm also paying that person for the rights to use it. We don't have a sport that's flush with "money" in the business of wrestling, so when I say it kind of hurts to see people just bailing on WrestleStat because they simply want their time compensated, I say it from a position that I've been there before. When you're paid to do something, there's a degree of responsibility and ownership that comes with it. Someone who jumps in, does something cool for free, then fades away. A lot of sites have come and gone over the years, usually when people go to college, get married, have kids, get a new job that's not as flexible. I've thought about shuttering the Preview Guide because it gets constantly shared by one person who buys it and then gives it away to 40 other people since data is so readily available now, sending a 15MB file isn't painful anymore. If everyone who actually read the preview guide actually paid for it in the way they were supposed to, I know I'd have a lot more financial resources to make it better. Imagine how much better this sport could be if we did invest in the time people Dan and Greg at WrestleStat, rather than recoil in horror at someone wanting to be paid for the hours of time that thousands of people benefit from? Yes, this is preachy. Yes, this is judgmental to a degree, since I've literally lived through this scenario several times. It's why its important as a sport that we support ourselves with the places who spend the money to do things. Ripping off streams and posting them for free takes money away from our sport. The number of people who will claim "more eyes will see it" if its free don't realize that gratitude doesn't pay the bills. I'll get off my soapbox now and tell everyone to get off my lawn. Yours in wrestling, JB

57kg (Lilledahl 2-0): After re-watching their last 3 matches (I do not think the BF match is worth watching Luke is much better now) I have changed my opinion on this match. I always thought Luke had a chance here after what happened at the open, however I did not Spencer as the favorite in my head. I have changed my tune and will be going with Luke in 2. I going with 2 because I think if it goes to 3 assuming Spencer is healthy he will be feeling very strong with that much time off the scale. Over their last 3 matches Spencer has score 18 of his 19 points in the first period, and 17 of those 18 in the first 2 minutes of the first period. After the first 2 minutes of the first period over the 3 matches Luke has outscored Spencer 7-2 and I think this is something that his team is certainly aware of. Spencer has always been a faster starter and has had the stigma around him that he fades late. While I do not think he is fading in the sense that he is dog tired and gassing I do think his feet start to slow down. When you couple that with lukes style where he very much likes to download his opponent and works heavy fakes (last time they met Luke faked left side the entire match and then finally went hard right side and got the takedown) I think you have a recipe for Luke to win 2 matches late. This of course is predicated on him being in the match enough to make spencer wrestle in the third period which was not very much the case at final x last year. I think if Luke stays in the handfight and is ok with eating a shot clock point early and can limit the overall damage he gets the job done here. 61kg: (Forrest 2-0) I am going to try and be as objective as possible here. Last time these two met was trials at 57kg in 2024, Blaze came out on top 8-1 but jax went for a double overs throw with 5 seconds left and gave up 4 so effectively makes it a 4-1 match. Under the new grounding rules there were two instances where Jax would have gotten push outs by todays standards that were not in that match. Right at the start of the second period and then with about 1 minute and 40 seconds left. I say all this because I think that a lot of people see the score and it feels a bit insurmountable but if the match played out today exactly the same its 4-3 with 5 seconds left now Marcus would have had criteria. The biggest difference I would say in the next meeting aside from both being much better is that Jax to me is the larger human now and will benefit from time off the scale more than Marcus will. Jax has also vastly expanded the ways in which he can score, and seems content to win a match one step at a time more so then he was back then (citing the vito series and then the seidel match at trials). At the time of their last meeting Jax's offense where very much predicated on counter scoring and his elbow/tricep control series. While that is still very much a focal point of his game it seems like against the best guys he is scoring most of his points now attacking their right leg with a plethora of different low level shots because of the amount of pressure and focus he force on the left side of their body. He has also gotten extremely good with his head underneath guys chest with sucker drags and simply getting tough and driving in for step outs. This is a position he found himself in a lot against seidel, and I anticipate will be paramount in the Blaze matchup. I am going Jax in 2 in very competitive but controlled wins. 65kg: (Real 2-0) Another match I have been all over the place with. While he has cleaned it up a ton Bo reminds me a bit of 2023-2024 Messenbrink where he kind of shoots with impunity from very far away at times. While it rarely if ever comes back to bite him because hes a dog on a bone and either pulls the leg in or wrestles out of a bad position, I think this is an instance where it could really hurt him. Real has an incredible chest wrap, I could see a situation where Reals heavy hands force Bo into an extended shot real sprawls and gets him extended and chucks him for 4 because of Bo overwrestling the position. Reals path for me is stinging Bo early when he comes out like a bat out of hell, a lot of guys seem to just try and weather the storm and that seems to never work out, Valencia got at him early, Wolbert, Dekraker, Shepherd all did the same. The advantage Real has over all of those guys in my opinion is that if he can get an early lead I think he has the counter ability to punish Bo enough to hold on. This is of course assuming Real can get a lead but I think his leg attacks can be some of the best we have domestically he is extremely powerful and has great timing sometimes its just a matter of if he actually decides to go or not but this is a stylistic matchup where I do not think sitting back and waiting will be an option for him. Another thing that may be minor or completely insignificant but gives me just enough confidence in what I view as a near 50/50 is that Real spent 2 years in the room with Desanto who is not Bo Bassett but Im sure after a 90 minute practice is a son of a gun to have coming at you so I feel fairly confident Real will hold up to the pace. 70kg: (Zain 2-0) 4 matchups in a row that I think are extremely close. Zain has looked good to me since his return but he has also shown very little ability to separate which is something that we have not really seen domestically since he was killing himself to make 65kg and yianni and JO were both world class as well. A lot is being made of Ridges scoring ability, but that scoring ability is very much a result of guys wrestling themselves into his offense, I do not see Zain doing that. If Ridge can hold center and show enough activity to get up on the shot clock I think he could potentially force Zains hand but I see the more likely outcome is Zain getting a shot clock point and perhaps a pushout and then just holding center and slowing the match down until Ridge gets desperate and either countering and closing the door, or Ridge does not go for it enough and he wins something like 2-0 2-1 each match. To add I think the real x factor here is I believe that Zain has the ability to go get it if he is losing late, and I just do not know that I see that for Ridge. 74kg: (Carr 2-0) This matchup really comes down to if you believe the trials version of Carr is good enough to beat James green and or are we going to see the best version of David which to me is the pretty clear winner. I am wondering a bit if the weight cut has become a serious problem for David. He looked excellent at both of the ranking series beating Itaev and Aoyagi as well as Jacques 9-2 which is notbale because he needed a buzzer beater to take him out at trials. I bring this up because the ranking series are +2kg. Match 1 will likely be about 4.5 hours off the scale give or take but by match 2 and 3 he should be feeling pretty good. I also am not entirely sure how I see Green finishing a takedown here. I think he is good for 2-3 points via step outs and the clock but I think even a down version of David is going to require more than 2-3 points to defeat. 79kg: (Chance 2-1) Chance has lost 8 times since making the world team in 2023, those losses are (JB x2, Zahid x3, Carter, Ramazonov, Ringer) The Ramazonov and one of the Zahid losses were the only ones that were by more than 3 points and those were both at 86kg, those guys also won world and or olympic gold the same year. Needless to say I do not think Chance is going to be over matched here despite how good Levi has been. I thought Chance looked very good at the open and outside of the last 90 seconds I did not think the cut seemed to bother him that much. As I mentioned in the Carr match while match 1 could be hard for chance I think he should be on full feed by match 2 and the potential match 3. Ultimately what lead me to my conclusion in this matchup is who I perceive as having a better chance of scoring on the other guy and that lead me to chance. Zahid was only able to manage 4 points on chance in their last meeting that was the same year Zahid blanked the world and put up 6+ on Dake on multiple occasions, it was also up at 86kg where Chance is certainly not optimized. I just have a hard time seeing Levi getting to his high c and pulling it in on chance between how far he keeps his hips back and his ability to get guys down into a single shin whizzer position and trick knee out. On chance end he has his arm spint as well as swim high c's to both sides and a good underhook series, as well as some tricky upper body stuff. I have Levi grinding out match 1 but after getting a feel and having more time off the scale Chance figures it out in 2 and 3. 86kg: (Zahid 2-0) Kyle has had a great year, even in his losses to Dhizoev and Kadiev I think that he has shown he is in the medal conversation at 86kg, Zahid seems to be rounding into that world champ form again though and that version of Zahid appears to be kyles kryptonite. I think this is much easier said than done because of the way zahid wrestles, but I think kyle needs to avoid pushing back into him at all costs. Zahid has ghosted him on a duck seemingly in every match. To me Kyles path is push outs and getting Zahid tired (this seems to be a none issue since moving to stillwater however) I just do not see Zahid allowing Kyle to chest wrap him and its hard to see kyle getting in and finishing clean although he did have some very nice shots on Kadiev. Ultimately I think this comes down to where Zahid is at. If he is at the level he was this time last year I just do not see Kyle making up the ground needed at 35 to get the job done here despite the fact that he is aging backwards. 92kg: (Trent 2-0) This is truly the only matchup where I see no outcome for the other guy to win. I do not think Trent blows Mach out, Mach is legitimately world class he had a 10-6 win over Gadzimagomedov who Trent beat in the world finals last year and recently lost to Trent 3-3 on criteria however that was after Trent went through two monsters in the same day. These guys are super familiar with each other and what Mach has going for him is that he has felt that underhook probably as much or more than anyone on the planet. Trent seems to at little wrinkles to his game everytime out though and even if Mach can shut the hook down I think Trent figures it out and gets it done. 97kg: (Buchanan 2-1) The narrative of this matchup has shifted a ton in the last two months. After Buchanan took out Yaz it seemed like the sentiment was he could push kyle, however after a loss to givi and Silot and Kyle beating Aitmukhan, Taz, and Givi that seems to have changed dramatically. What I will note is that Buchanan said he hurt his ribs during the Givi match, and then was off the mat for about 4 weeks leading into the open. Buchanans wins over vicky and Yazdani and the margin to which he won are extremely impressive and are alone enough for me to give him a shot here. What ultimately lead me to picking him though is Kyle winning his RAF matches recently largely on pace and his opponents gassing which is not all that surprising given they are Europeans not only not at worlds but in a 1 off match where pay does not matter in regards to the outcome. Kyle has been absolutely clincial at punishing guys as they work back up from a front head he is getting angles at will. He has also been heavily featuring his snatch single especially as the match wears on. Buchanan is one of the few guys that I believe can match Kyles athleticism and perhaps even have an advantage in that front. Where he really impressed me against Yazdani was his ability to limit damage with pushouts. He was able to wrestle in extremely well and even counter score off the underhooks a few times. Kyle at times can get a bit flat footed, this was taken advantage of by Aitmukhan and Taz at RAF. I think Buchanan may be one of the more prolific low level attackers at this weight, and he has the ability to take guys for 4. I think Kyle gets one match here but I am going with Buchanan for the major upset, I think if he is healthy he has the ability to wrestle a full 6 minutes, and he has the more complete offensive profile at this point and time. 125kg: (Wyatt 2-1) I still have absolutely no idea on this matchup but it will be awesome. My lean is Wyatt, I think that he has a few more ways to score and thought Mason looked a bit lackluster against Trumble, especially in the leg attack front where he kept getting countered. Trumble is super crafty and I am not sure Wyatt presents the same level of technical proficiency with head pinches, but he certainly has more power. Even though Parris won the last one by tech, I view Wyatt as having the better probability of getting in spots to score points in flurries over a 3 match series at this juncture than Mason. I did not proof read this and did it over 2 days so sorry if its Gibberish.

Seniors: 57kg: 1, Spencer 2, Luke 3, Seymour (I have not seen enough from Luke that leads me to believe that he has made up the gap between he and Spencer without a Spencer decline which I do not think is happening. Seymour dating back to high school has always been better at freestyle to me. It really suits his ability to hold position and pick his spots and he has some pretty sneaky chest wrap stuff.) 61kg: 1, Jax 2, Marcus 3, Davino (this weight I have very little confidence in any picks outside of maybe Jax who I still think could potentially get knocked off by Marcus who seems to be his best at free. I think Jax is on another level and really think he can win gold this year (yes even if ono goes) he was in the match for about 5 minutes with Uguev and I think he is much better now than he was then. After Jax though recency bias makes me want to pick Ben for second but he has not been overly competitive with Marcus in free and while I think he has also improved a lot since last year I think Marcus will get it done in a close one. Then you have two real wildcards in gross and Desanto. Gross of course beat Marcus last year and poses a stylistic challenge for everyone, and Austin has been wrestler better than he has his entire career over the last 6-8 months and I really wonder what a Desanto Blaze match looks like. 65kg: 1, Mckenna 2, Mendez 3, Valencia (Joey is probably not the sexy pick here but he has been wrestling outstanding outside of two beat downs from Sujeet who may be able to take out amouzad in this form. He beat Suda 7-0 who is definitely not the same guy at 65kg that he was at 61kg but still is a good win and world bronze last year jalolov 3-0. This is easily the deepest weight in my opinion and really does not have a clear favorite in my eyes. I think Jesse has sort of been looked at as the heir apparent to the weight and then of course you have Bo, Beau, Hardy, Valencia. Valencia has always been the brides maid but never the bride and I think that confidence could take him a long way perhaps even to the top but I am conservatively putting him at third. I am just not ready to pick Bo to navigate this field after he lost to Brock and Marcus last year and in my opinion needed a pretty bad call to beat Valencia without seeing more of him against this level of competition in freestyle. 70kg: 1, Pantaleo 2, Kasak 3, Henson (the essential top 3 from last year are not competing in this event PJ, Yianni, James green so its about as wide open of a weight as we are going to get. I am going with the most proven guy in Pantaleo he is coming off a close 3-2 loss with akmataliev who is world class and I am not sure if anyone aside from Henson and kasak are going to be able to withstand his hand fight. I think Miller could make a run here but I worry about how double dipping at u20's if that is going to wear him down too much to handle the dog fights he will need to win to make the finals or potentially win the spot. I believe this is scratch weight and I have heard rumors that Kasak is a prettty big big and while he looked great at the BF and beat henson in a great bout I believe that was +2kg and that is ultimately why I think Pantaleo edges it out + I think he faces a bit less adversity on the way to the finals. 74kg: 1, Carr 2, Monday 3, Green (without mitchell this weight lacks a great deal of intrigue for me, I think Carr should walk through the field I could see Quincy offering some opposition and James if of course someone you cannot count out but I do not know if he can utilitze the pop and power that has brought him so much success at 70kg up at 74.) 79kg: 1, Chance 2, Dean 3, KOT ( I am super excited about this weight and these 3 guys are 3 of my favorite dudes in the sport so I will be happy if any of them win and sad if any of them lose. I think there is a real world where Chance is our 79kg rep last year if he made the descent down and I think he too could have came away with a medal. Dean seems to really be improving his freestyle game and is in a great training environment. If I knew we were going to see the best version of KOT I would likely pick him because I think he has the highest ability ceiling but he did not look great to me at RAF and one match after such a long layoff worries me about how competition ready he is right now. 86g: 1, Dake 2, PK 3, Max (I really liked what I saw from Kyle even in a loss to Kadiev. He was getting to legs a lot more and did not seem overly reliant on his chest wrap. PK may be the popular pick after beating Zahid but he was not remotely close to beating kyle last year and Kyle was really able to bully him around the mat.) 92kg: 1, Barr 2, Merill 3, Sinclair ( hoping to see Josh wrestle Sinclair and Merill I think both could be fun matches in free. Merills hips are so damn hard to get past and I could see him getting either guy in a chest wrap or snagging some push outs. I think Sinclair is going to struggle to generate his own offense against both guys and ultimately see Barr winning the weight in competitive but decided fashion.) 97kg: Buchannen, Rademacher, Mirasola (Buchannen may be able to push Snyder for the spot he has looked awesome. I am largely chalking Rademachers underwhelming collegiate season to cutting far too much weight but would not be shocked if Connor knocked him off. I do not think either guy offer Buchannen a ton of resistance though.) 125kg: 1, Parris 2, Hendrickson, 3, Kerk (Wyatt just does not seem to really be refining his game a ton. He can look awesome and like a disaster all in the same match and thats what makes him so exciting. Mason winning their latest meeting leads me to pick him here given he was the one off the mat so one would venture to guess that the time between meetings has benefited him a bit more and he also won the most recent matchup. u20's: 57kg: 1, Cortez 2, Villasenor 3, Burnett (Cortez had 3 wins over national qualifiers this season and is historically a freestyle monster. He beat seidel last year in free and beat Bassett at cadets a couple years back. If the move to 125 is a long term thing he could be a serious problem next year in college. Villasneor took a match off of knox last year he has a pretty wide range of outcomes but he is probably the most powerful guy in the field.) 61kg: Ronnie Ramirez, Elijah Cortez, Dean Anderson (very big fan of all 3 of these guys. Ronnie would have been an NQ last season and I think had the ability to push for the podium. We have not seen him in a few months, and I am guessing he has improved since last we saw him given what is going on in that room. Similarly to his brother Elijah has great results in free and Dean is a Valiant kid with a lot of ways to score from neutral and some tricky stuff I would not write him off in any match. 65kg: 1, Seidel 2, Bassett 3, Riccardi (This match largely boils down to I think that both Seidel and Bo are absolutely incredible and probably the two best guys in my eyes competing at u20's, but I think that the way Seidel wrestles is going to give Bo issues. Seidel is very good with a 2 on 1 which Vladimir who is much smaller and older was able to use with some degree of effectiveness against bo. Seidel also finishes at an absurdly efficient rate and Bo often has guys in on his legs he is just an extremely underrated scrambler. Lastly I do not think Bo can melt Aaron in the hand fight, I am sure he lets Henson pound on his head all the time in the room so he should be pretty well adapted to that.) 70kg: 1, Robideau 2, Miller 3, Hilton (Was hoping to see Landon do seniors as well, but I assume being the weight is not allocated his plan is to focus on u20's first. Robideau has had Millers number winning their last two meetings 1 in free and 1 in folk. I do not see it going any differently here, Melvin has had issues opening Landon up and I think Landon should be able to work him around the mat and get pushouts. Cooper Hilton is one of my favorite dudes and I think when he gets his shot will be a real factor in college. Very strong and he scraps every second he is out there. 74kg: 1, James 2, Routledge 3, Denny ( I want to go out and say I do not have the balls to pick Routledge but I think he can win this weight. Denny and James had an absolutely wild one last year, but Jayden was still trying to make 71kg for cadets at the time and he looks like a full feed 74kg now.) 79kg: 1, Burton 2, Chris Crawford 3, Asher Cunningham (If you are not familiar with Christopher Crawford you may want to familiarize yourself kids a supremely talented athlete and I think is going to make some noise next year. That said I think this is Burtons weight to lose.) 86kg: 1, Sinclair 2, Brock Man 3, Cressell (This weight is super top heavy and I have no conviction after the top 2 could see any of Cressell, Ontiveros, Chapman, Nick singer taking that spot.) 92kg: 1, Reall 2, Hodgins 3, Thompkins (Not entirely sure how Reall has u20 eligibility but he scrapped with Camden Mcdaniel at NCAA's and while I really like Hodgins I think physical maturity may be a bit of a task to overcome here.) 97kg: I truly do not know 125kg: 1, Ross 2, Merill 3, Mocco (2 years in a row that this weight is an absolute gauntlet. Outside of these 3 you have Dellegatta, Sahakian, Lawler, Bechtold. Dreshaun is going to be my pick to win NCAA's next year, I feel like he is one of the most physically gifted wrestler we have ever seen and appears to be filling out that enormous frame of his. Merill scrapped with Parris so it would be foolish to rule him out but I am riding with Ross. I may add cadets this took me longer than I anticipated.

I'll throw my hat in the ring. Here are my predictions for freestyle this year. For the record I know I'm going to be completely off for 90% of these predictions. But I'm going to let my Iran tinted glasses make the decisions. 57: Gold: Spencer Lee Silver: Tuskaev Bronze: RBY and Khndzrtsyan In all fairness I don't follow this weight class too closely but no Higuchi, Aman or Abdullaev have made this weight class a lot weaker. I feel like Spencer Lee is the most complete wrestler out of the field and if in form is the best guy on the planet. North Korea and Armenia are probably the two guys that can beat him but I think he will get the job done this year. 61: Gold: Uguev Silver: Blaze Bronze: Abdullaev and Abakarov Not much to say here Uguev is one of the most dominant wrestlers of his generation. Blaze is still too inexperienced to hang with him. The rest of the field is good but not as good as the top 2. 65: Gold: Amouzad Silver: Sujeet Bronze: Mamedov and Magomedov Very tough weight class to predict. But I think this is the most likely scenario to unfold. 70: Gold: Akmataliev Silver: Ochir Bronze: Heybatov and Ibragimov This weight class is a lot more stacked than I realised. A lot of really good wrestlers here. But I think Akmataliev wins worlds and Ibragimov goes on a tear before losing by pin to Ochir in the semis who then proceeds to lose a mind numbing match in the final. Khalili probably gets to repechage and drops a close match to one of Ibragimov or Heybatov and gets fifth. 74: Gold: Aoyagi Silver: Yazdani Bronze: Salkazanov and Sheriev No Sidakov and no Zhamalov apparently. Either way Aoyagi I think is the most complete wrestler here. Salkazanov is good but I don't know whether his gas tank will hold up. I'm hoping Amir Mohammad Yazdani has a good tournament since he beat Emami who ran the field at Asian Games. 79: Gold: Nokhodi Silver: Khaniev Bronze: Haines and Gharedaghi I think its Nokhodi's time to finally win a world title. Again 79 like 70 is pretty stacked with good wrestlers. Overall Nokhodi's experience makes him the most well-rounded wrestler here. 86: Gold: Ghasempour Silver: Ramazanov Bronze: Kadiev and Dzhioev Honestly could go either way here. I think Dake loses an early match to Dzhioev or Kadiev who then loses to Ghasempour/Ramazanov. In the final I'm hoping Ghasempour avenges the Paris Olympics loss and wins his third world title. 92: Gold: Hidlay Silver: Amanula Gazdhimagomedov Bronze: Firouzpour and Kurugliev Hidlay is the best guy in this weight class. Not much to say here tbh. Kurugliev being here makes things interesting though. 97: Gold: Snyder Silver: Sadulaev Bronze: Yazdani and Yoshida Very tough one. I don't see Yazdani, Yoshida or Tazhudinov winning worlds its between Snyder or Sadulaev. Either way I think Snyder will get the job done. Snyder looks very ready for worlds this year. 125: Gold: Zare Silver: Sharipov Bronze: Siyar and Kassimbek Zare is the best in the world. Kassimbek will definitely cause him problems though.

Hold on! When did Nelson Brands get involved here?

I am almost afraid to ask this, but I have never known whether someone using the Bob Dole emoji was a good thing or a bad thing. Or both?

Lot a folks would flip out for that hire but do ya think Brent will push for him?

Folks, there's already a Nebraska thread. Any chance we can move everyone's argument with one poster move there and we can focus on the portal here?

Ever wonder what place a team of the best finishers from each state at each weight would finish at the national tournament? Clink the link and have some fun. I'll have the 2026 results in their later tonight after the finals.

Let three of the best days of the year begin

Some interesting tidbits about Arash Yoshida. Only 22 years old. He's Iranian/Japanese. His father is a former Iranian wrestler (Javed Esfanjani). Left Iran and started a wrestling club (Ichikawa Koshti Club) outside of Tokyo. Where Arash and his brothers trained in traditional Iranian wrestling techniques. Another wrestler for Japan (Keyvan Gharedhdaghi) also has an Iranian father and Japanese mother and won the Asian Championships this year at 79kg in his first major senior tournament beating Olympic Champion Zhamalov. He also recently took Silver at the U20 Worlds. Unfortunately he had to pull out of the Senior Worlds due to a knee injury. Not sure if he trains at the same club at Arash Yoshida. *Shared from another.

Trying to be realistic for the USA finishes. Here are my quick picks for Gold and USA finishes: 57 - Lee (USA) 61 - Uguev (RUS) Blaze (USA) - DNP 65 - Sujeet (IND) Bassett (USA) - DNP 70 - Retherford (USA) 74 - Aoyagi (JAP) Green (USA) - DNP 79 - Nokhodilarimi (IRN) Haines (USA) - Bronze 86 - Ghasempour (IRN) Dake - DNP 92 - Firouzpourbandpei (IRN) Hidlay (USA) - Bronze 97 - Sadulaev (RUS) Snyder (USA) - Silver/Bronze 125 - Zare (IRN) Hendrickson (USA) - DNP

I think the US under performance is being exagerrated by folks here. Most of your guys are very very young competing against very experienced senior level guys. Its pretty natural for young wrestlers to struggle. A lot of the guys who have medalled in Iran's team have been competing at U23 circuit for 2 or even 3 years now. Karampour, Khari, Rahmani and Yousefi being notable examples. U23s is a big step up from U20. If anyone thinks guys like Basset and Lilledahl aren't future world medalists you would be lying to yourself. Also you guys sent a weaker team this year compared to last year for some reason. Why wasn't PJ Duke competing for the spot at 70? I also feel the excessive publicity and film that surrounds your guys has a negative impact tbh. Basset has been surrounded by media since he was like 15 so much so even guys in Iran knew about him at junior levels. I honestly like a lot of the US guys more so than the Russian team. Khaniev and Akhmadinov spent more time on the floor sleeping then wrestling against our guys. At least you guys wrestle to the final whistle.

It was seemingly impossible to get people that hate Gable to understand I wasn't trying to defend Gable or anything he's done/said nor to get them to like him. That's despite being abundantly clear that my point was that Gable is not 'a failure'. He could never win a UFC fight again and he still wouldn't be a 'failure'. He was an Olympic Champ and voted the heisman of college wrestling. Because of that he got long-shot opportunities in two of the highest leagues in their industry. If you thought it was likely that he made an NFL roster, and thus consider it a failure, that's a you issue. it's almost like they're saying you shouldn't attempt things when the opportunity arises. it's loser talk in my opinion.

As far as controversial, Paul Donahoe at 125lbs might be difficult (notice i didn't say hard) to defeat (I didn't say beat).

I wrestled four years for a mid-level Big Ten school in the 1990s. My biggest claim to fame is that I only lost two varsity Big Ten matches in my entire career. Cough. Career varsity Big Ten record: 0-2

But you don't like this country, pretty sure you've said it many times. You've also said you'd like to live elsewhere and we are ok with that.

Not sure the rules around here for something like this, but I know with absolute certainty that tons of Big Ten wrestling occurs on BTN+. if you head into your account settings or create a new one and use the couple SAVE27 at checkout, $20.27 for the entire year subscription with AUTO RENEW after 1 year at $90. Please heed the caution of the auto renew. this should work for new and existing customers. Hope some find this useful, sorry if this is the wrong place for such a post.

The docs aren't taking away from anything. If you wanted something else instead that would make sense. But just wanting less content is weird.

2 years left, idk why I thought it was just 1. Glad to see it. MIZ!

Typical Trump. Makes a performative gesture to appease his base, knowing it has no chance in hell of surviving a legal challenge. If he actually cared, he'd do the hard work of getting this passed thru the proper legislative process.

Hadn’t watched that Max interview yet. Dude is just so likable.

Have I got some bad news for you about every program and every one of these kids going in right now.

no it is not. MMA is the professional combat sport for MANY D1 wrestlers. Brock Lesnar – NCAA D-I All-American and national champ at the University of Minnesota. Randy Couture – NCAA D-I All-American and future Olympian (Oklahoma State). Daniel Cormier – NCAA D-I national runner-up and All-American (Oklahoma State). Cain Velasquez – NCAA D-I All-American (Arizona State). Chris Weidman – NCAA D-I wrestler (Hofstra). Josh Koscheck – NCAA D-I All-American (Edinboro). Johny Hendricks – NCAA D-I national champion and All-American (Oklahoma State). Matt Hughes – NCAA D-I wrestler (Eastern Illinois). Tyron Woodley – NCAA D-I All-American (Missouri). Ben Askren – NCAA D-I two-time national champ & Hodge Trophy winner (Missouri). Chad Mendes – NCAA D-I All-American (Cal Poly). Bo Nickal – Three-time NCAA D-I national champ & Hodge Trophy winner (Penn State). Gray Maynard – NCAA D-I wrestler (Michigan State). Colby Covington – NCAA D-I All-American (Oregon State). Jake Rosholt – NCAA D-I national champ and four-time All-American (Oklahoma State). Jared Rosholt – NCAA D-I wrestler and All-American (Oklahoma State). Phil Davis – NCAA D-I national champ and All-American (Penn State). Mark Munoz – NCAA D-I All-American (Oklahoma State). Kevin Randleman – NCAA D-I national champ (Oklahoma State). Mark Coleman – NCAA D-I national champ (Ohio State). Dan Severn – Two-time NCAA D-I All-American (Arizona State). Curtis Blaydes – NCAA D-I wrestler (Northern Illinois) Jon Fitch – NCAA D-I wrestler (Missouri) Abel Trujillo – NCAA D-I wrestler (Cal State Bakersfield) Ryan Bader – NCAA D-I wrestler (Arizona State) Pat Cummins – NCAA D-I wrestler (Penn State) Frank Trigg – NCAA D-I wrestler (Oklahoma State) Rashad Evans – NCAA D-I wrestler (Michigan State Many other D2, D3 and juco and NAIA guys have made it as well. Gable Steveson looks like the next one up. Great thread and interesting conversation point. Thank you OP.

Have his wife start a clothing company and tell him tuse school funds to purchase clothes for team from her company. Worked for Illinois

Alvan just mirrored him. He dropped to a knee. Did nothing. Refused to come forward. And Lockett sat and watched it for 8 minutes without trying to do anything. Lockett let a guy make it a 1 move match and then lost the 1 move. Lockett needs to change his entire approach or it will keep happening.

Joey Blaze wrestles just like I did when I was in college, except he is good and wins matches, and wrestles differently than I did.

Cael insisted

#OKMaybeALittleBought

I highly doubt the 19 year thing is part of the final rule. but let's move on from that. I think the schools that will be 'hurt' the most will be the power programs. hypothetically, they won't be able to stash a stud for a year while they redshirt. talented guys will want to start all five. maybe it's a bit of wishful thinking on my part, as I'd like to see a stud that's at OKST or PSU go to idk...indiana or Wyoming.

I liked John Smith's quote this year working with the Ok St Women's Club. I've been coaching for 32 years. Never before have any of my kids brought me cookies and chocolate!

It would be a better story if he were quoting St. Francis of Assisi.

Insane. That was one of the highest paced matches I've personally ever seen. And JC is 0 for 2 in the post-match interviews.

Bruised knee. Sorry, I can't help myself.

Hello Everyone, As in previous years with the NCAA and BIG12 tournaments I have made an excel fillable bracket. Attached to this post is the 2026 NCAA Bracket and the 2025 NCAA Bracket as an example. There is a tab for each weight 125-285, the running total for each session/round, team scores, and finishes (including R16 & R12) In each bracket to fill out all one has to do is input (From the drop menu) the projected result (F, For, Def, INJ, DQ, TF-11/2, TF-1, MD, Dec) and the bracket will move forward and score the team points accordingly. Below the bracket at each weight class there is an additional table for running points and an option to fill in team penalties and DQ. Enjoy, let me know if there are issues with it, but it should be working fine if you have the latest version of excel on your computer. 2026 NCAA WRESTLING BRACKET VERSON 1.0.xlsx 2025 NCAA WRESTLING BRACKET VERSON 2.5.xlsx