Wrestleknownothing

Without those how will we know if Aaron Brooks is too short to win?

Good to know, Salt Merchant, oops, I mean RL.

Well, I of all people, cannot hold that against him. He seems bitter about betting on Steveson and losing. He can't be wrong, so the only logical explanation is it was fixed.

This just in. PSU actually won 49 matches this tournament, not the previously reported 48.

I am with you on the first two

Lost your job at The National inquirer?

But nothing fishy about you creating this persona to post this five times.

Great write up

You must have missed this in the article: Criteria for the Hodge includes a wrestler’s record, dominance/bonus-point percentage, quality of competition and sportsmanship.

I always go to the WIN stories that list the criteria as they have changed over time. For example, from last year: 2024 Hodge Article Also, we were fortunate enough to have the creator of the Hodge visit us a week, or so, ago and give us a little history lesson: "Good discussion and beneficial to anyone interested in wrestlers being honored. When I first came up with the concept back in 1994, I sat down with Dan Hodge (my first book was "Two Guys Named Dan" in 1976 and we became very good friends) and told him of my plans to create something similar to the Heisman Trophy, to draw more media attention and to give college wrestlers something extra to shoot for. Dan endorsed the idea and said if I named it after him, he would like pinning to be an essential part. In 1956, Dan won three national titles (collegiate, freestyle and Greco-Roman) in two weeks time by pinning all 13 foes. I quickly agreed that pinning would be a main factor. But since then, Bryan Van Kley (who bought WIN from me many years ago) and I have tried to "keep up with the times" by including dominance to mean techs and majors, as well as pins. And we consult with many former coaches and leaders of the sport who are on the voting committee and try to listen to what fans are saying (WKN and JB, in particular) and some of my longtime friends who have been involved with the sport for over half a century. Bryan and I are proud that over 20,000 fans vote on line each year and that all the colleges that have a winner play it up big, both at the annual wrestling banquet and at a football game in the fall, often with 70,000 fans in attendance. And we greatly appreciate our sponsor Asics. The goal was always to make wrestling more visible and to honor those who excel at Mankind's Oldest Sport. -- Mike Chapman"

I am very concerned that these Tesla terrorists are going to be found and convicted and then Trump will issue a blanket pardon to all of them.

PSU did fail to break their own record from last year for highest win %, only moving into fourth this year. I am including Minnesota in there because of the wins, but I suspect there are other teams with better winning percentages. I just don't feel like finding them. Good news, that means you can.

not yet. but I will.

OK, I should stop being a dick and include some Iowa love. Iowa still holds the record for the most consecutive years with at least 8 AA's, with a ridiculous run of seven straight years, from 1980 to 1986.

Huh, as a PSU fan I have no idea how that sort on year from largest to smallest could have happened. I will get the interns working on that.

Thank you, brother.

PSU also tied the 1991 Iowa team for the most top 3 finishers with 8. Because I did not want to hurt @ionel's feelings I included the % of available weights. Oklahoma State still holds that record from back when teams used Conestoga wagons to get to the venue and traveled with at least 20 wrestlers in case any died from dysentery along the way.

The President being there, staying fully engaged for three hours, and tweeting about it was an overwhelimingly positive thing for the sport.

That can't be right. All transfers are going to Rutgers now.

Hard to say. Bonus points are very volatile from year to year making it difficult to establish a baseline. But when I looked at it last year the impact appeared to be that majors are more prevalent, but there are fewer pinfalls because there are more tech falls. I will be checking that again for this year.

No one noticed that I got one of these wrong. PSU's average finish was 3.0 rather than than the 3.1 I originally stated. So that have that record by themselves too.

In addition to the two records that we already know about - 177 points, 10 AA's (tied with 2001 Minnesota), I think PSU set, or tied, at least two other records this week. 3.1 - highest average finish (tied with 1991 Iowa - if you are charitable and assume their blood round loser finished 9th) 48 - most matches won in a single tournament (previous best was 46 by 1992 Iowa) @cowcards check me on that last one, please

They reversed their decision in the offseason, awarded Iowa State their fourth place trophy after the fact, and now award through fourth again at the tournament.

Yes, it does.

Funny, I was just looking at this. I have not put this year's complete results into the db yet, so there is a little hand work here. I will fix that. PSU had an average seed of 2.6. I do not know for sure (I will be checking), but I believe this is unprecedented. In spite of that insanely high starting point, the end point only missed by 0.5. They finished with an average position of 3.1. That they missed by only a half a spot is pretty bonkers. Below are the Cael years up until now. So, in spite of having a nearly impossible number to beat, they still did better relative to seed than in 2022, 2019, 2017, and 2013. And they did this with 10 wrestlers. It is always easier when there are few opportunities for failure, especially where outperformance is not possible (#1 seeds). And here is the thing about 2024. Starocci was the #9 seed for purely administrative reasons. If he is not forced to medically forfeit by his coach, he is likely the #1 seed. That would have brought PSU's average seed down to 3.2. In that scenario, PSU also misses by 0.5 in a year when they also break the point scoring record. The idea of underperformance and overperformance is not an absolute. I know in the hot take era this is not a popular view. Stephen A Smith is getting paid an insane amount for a reason. But if you are the #33 seeded wrestler there is no such thing as underperformance. And if you are the #1 seeded wrestler there is no such thing as overperformance. A sliding scale, or at least the acknowledgement of the one-sided distribution, must be employed. Also, keep in mind that this is still way better than the field. Based on averages generated from all teams (including PSU's own performance) PSU was expected to score 156 points and have 8.6 AAs. They beat both those numbers. The only place they missed was that they had 2.7 expected champions. And they were only a TD away from beating that.