Red Blades

I'm not so sure - - RPI - head-to-head competition - quality wins - conference tournament placement - results versus common opponents - win percentage. As of now, Fix and Vito look like they have the advantage in RPI. If Fix and Vito both win out the remaining schedule, and win their conference tournaments, there may be little else to separate them.

In part, yes, the Coaches' Rankings are a factor: Source: NCAA releases midseason coaches’ rank and RPI for 2023 Division I Wrestling Championships | NCAA.com

Hmmm... Cornell needs another 184 lbr right now... I wonder if they can finagle this?

Does anyone else think - the system works pretty well the way it is?

Al you really need is to cruise I-80 from the GWB to Des Moines.

Everyone would need to be at 100% - and when does that ever happen? 184, 285 are concerns as of now. On the other hand - 125 and 141 are turning out to exceed preseason expectations.

Except I think these results do count unofficially, by way of the Coaches Rankings.

You are right, I somehow missed counting a couple of 125 matches - so he's in better shape than I thought, with just under 8 matches at weight, and a couple of high ranking wins. He may not get the RPI, but he'll clearly have enough for a coaches' ranking after the EIWA tournament, if not sooner. I don't see anyone else getting a Head-to-head win over him, and winning % should be tops. That should be enough to put him at the top.

The matches at 133 don't count towards RPI or record. As of now he has 4 matches against D1 opponents at 125, and none of them ranked. I think that's going to haunt him in seeding. It might not matter, but if he get's a bad early draw, and is hurting with the weight cut...

I thought it may be of general interest here - today is the last day on the job for Cornell Athletic Director Andy Noel. Also a former wrestling coach at Cornell, I think Andy has been a big part of Cornell Wrestling's success over the past decades. Here's a little tribute video posted on Facebook: Andy Noel. Thanks for all you've done, Andy!

Wow, I remember those - late 1960's?

Wait, what's happening next weekend?!

D3, great job on the PBP - we'll make a Cornell fan out of you yet!

I think if VT can win the swing matches at 125 and 141 it's a 5-5 split; with some bonus points at 157 or 184 (especially if Loew is out) that could do it for them.

Wrestlestat predicts this as a 18-13 Cornell victory. Possible marquee matchups at 141 (Yianni vs Henson) 174 (Foca vs. Lewis) and 184 (Loew vs Bolen) assuming the starters all go. (?) 125 (Ungar vs. Ventresca) and 141 (Cornella vs. Crook) also look like toss-ups. Thoughts?

Right, I'm thinking back to the example of Jesse Delgado a number of years back (2016?) where I believe he came in unseeded as a returning national champ due to lack of coaches ranking and RPI. There was a lot of discussion then IIRC about the fairness or appropriatness of this. More recently the tournament does get seeded top to bottom, but even so, with no ranking or RPI, the consequences would be pretty severe. Different situation with Delgado, as I believe the issue for him was injury rather than weight - but the need to maintain a minimum match count at weight is still in effect.

Presently, a minimum number of matches are needed for a coaches ranking (I believe it has been 8?), which means, in effect, minimum matches to be seeded - is that enough of a boundary?

This - Rob Koll was actively advocating to make wrestling a second semester sport while he was at Cornell, and for all I know, still does so (mail is slow from the Left Coast though, so we don't hear from him so much anymore! ;-). Coach Grey seems to be sticking to this policy so far - Cornell's Fall Term portion of the schedule was pretty light, with CKLV being the only major tournament scheduled, and a few guys have sat out of early events. Arguably the grind of completing Fall Term coursework and exams while training at a high level is a huge ask for student athletes. Rob and Mizzou's Brian Smith also started the South Beach Duals a few years back with the thinking that the winter break should also provide a bit of a break for the wrestlers. The guys would wrestle a few matches, but it was not as much of a grind as Midlands or the Scuffle; afterwards the team would stay in Florida for a week or so and train on the beach (some of the videos posted on the Cornell website were a hoot!) and enjoy the warm weather (Nice change from Central NY!). This event seems to have morphed into the Collegiate Duals. I think Cael Sanderson has adopted a similar approach over at Happy Valley - the BiG dual schedule is such a grind, there is no need to overload the schedule in November and December. I expect this is a natural progression in coaching/scheduling philosophy. Maybe it would be better to recognize it and view the schedule prior to January as "pre-season" with a few quality events, and perhaps an opportunity to shake out a lineup and get some work in for guys lower on the depth chart; but for the established veterans, look for the real season to begin in the second term.

Kale & Co. only attend The Big One.

No. Need based aid only. But if a student has merit scholarships from outside sources, that is OK.

Meh... He's actually been pretty benign lately. It's those Lehigh Lurkers that really get annoying!

Seems to be a theme for today.

It looks like Pitt woke up for this one, D3. Never poke a sleeping panther.

The first 3 weights for Cornell looked pretty good, I thought; but after that, they looked slow and out of shape up and down the lineup. Wisconsin, on the other hand, came to scrap. No, this team won't give PSU much of a go. Let's hope a different Cornell team shows up for that match, if indeed they can get that far.

This should be a good dual. I'm not sure Cornell has all of the lineup available, but I've got it at 5-5 split, Cornell with a couple of bonus points - 17-15 Big Red.