Wrestleknownothing

The expected points for a 1 seed is 19.7 including bonus. He scored 16, so he was only -3.7 of the -23.8 points. Most costly was Rafael Hipolito. As a 4 seed he is expected to score 11.4 points rather than the 1 he scored.

Agreed. If he gets one or two first period TDs, then the only reason for his opponent to commit to a ride is if they think they can get a turn or if they just don't want to get embarrassed on their feet any longer. That said, I could certainly see opponents going to the "Angelo Ferrari school of folkstyle wrestling when faced with a superior force" in an attempt to make it out of the first period at 0-0, so that the ride matters.

I can certainly see where Starocci and the PSU community disagreed with the decision, but I agree that it is good for wrestling to feature multiple story lines. Wrestling out of order so that the two big stories bookended the night was awkward, but in retrospect, a good call. That the night ended with the second biggest upset of all time, made the decision makers look pretty smart. About that last point, Jordan Burroughs needs to grow some thicker skin. Bragging about the decision on match order in the moment was the wrong emphasis. He should have been putting the upset into perspective and saved his victory lap for later.

I was pulling for them to make the podium. They were headed in that direction mid-season, but began to fall off the pace late.

And for @BruceyB, I ballparked it and came up with the "PSU Bump Included Total" of ~183. Based on that PSU underperformed PSU by 6 points. The calls for Sanderson's head are real.

Nebraska outperformed expectations by the most. We didn't really need the math to know this. If you had eyes to see... But now we can assign a number to it. And you know it means nothing to me without a number assigned to it. Observations: Nebraska beat their expected points by a whopping 62%. Not the highest, but anyone with a higher % had a much lower starting point. All four podium teams outperformed their expectations. As it should be. In addition to Nebraska, Oklahoma State beat by 38%, PSU beat by 14%, and Iowa beat by 6%. After North Carolina State had possibly the worst tournament ever in 2024, they bounce back nicely in 2025 to beat their expectations by 60%. Call it the Hoagie Hidlay Bump. Anyone who was in the Dark Horse Derby is not surprised to see Indiana and Northwestern near the top of the outperformers list. On the other end, Virginia Tech has to be a little disappointed this morning. But as underperformance goes, it was not that extreme. Overall, teams scored 21.5 fewer points than my expectations, an average of about 0.3 points per team. Not too bad for the model.

This data is definitely for sale. It is a big business selling alternative data sets to hedge funds. It used to be things like counting cars in parking lots to get a jump on earnings announcements, but now a lot of it is cell phone tracking data. I am not sure to what extent turning off location services on your phone affects the data or not. Just because your tracking is turned off does not mean somewhere it is know what cell towers your phone is hitting.

PSU scored 34.5 bonus points this year (10 MD, 5 TF, 7 PF). Last year they scored 34. As near as I can tell 34 was a record last year and 34.5 is a new record this year. Does anyone know of any higher?

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.