Jason Bryant

Finland loves metal covers.

I agree in theory, but at the same point, putting wrestling at the SEC schools means they're no better than what in terms of their importance on campus? Football, Basketball and Baseball are undoubtedly 1-2-3 and it's not close in the SEC. Do non-football D1 schools move the needle nationally? No. But there can be models shown where wrestling is a money sport on campuses that can draw interest. Let's use another hockey reference, since I've learned a lot about our sport by working in another this year. North Dakota has a football team in FCS. That is not the primary sport on campus, hockey is. That's what they care about. That's where the sport can see growth is becoming a big deal on those campuses where there isn't the competition for the fanbase. Be great if the SEC gave a damn about something other than money. It's only great for wrestling if those schools actually committed to it. If you look at the roster of men's sports in the SEC, the conference very much cares about doing the bare minimum to sponsor sports.

If you ever hear it over the PA, you can rest assured, it won't be me.

I don't trust anyone who uses the word that shall not be named. Unless you're Pete Weber.

Where's Gray Simons?

I don't know if I'm harsh here. The SEC run from 1972-1980 ended up with 21 All-Americans After the breakup, that left the remaining schools in the East and Midwest Regions (depending on the year) to place 19 wrestlers from 1981-85. So the Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Kentucky crew was more prolific after the conference broke up. The SEC got 21 AA's out of 142 qualifiers in those 9 years sponsoring the sport, while the four (then three teams left as Auburn's last year was 1981) provided 19 AA's out of 69 qualifiers in those 5 years. SEC schools had some fierce wrestlers, but the SEC as a whole, the conference was not great. Georgia, Alabama and Florida collectively earned 1 All-American from 1972-1980.

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Yup.

125: Patrick McCormick. First match of the tournament last year on St. Patrick’s Day, too.

My college roommate was a junker, but ranked 5th in the country. He hit this move quite a bit at the Division I level, even at the NCAA tournament. Had a bad tournament and went 2-2, but it’s not always a showboat move.

More of a myth than reality. The conference only sponsored for 9 years and Georgia and Alabama never had an All-American, while LSU and Tennessee saw their best years actually post-SEC sponsorship. Auburn had the longest history, but as a whole, the conference as a conference wasn’t very good. I can’t get at the stats right now but I looked at them a few days ago.

Not possible. Whole institution is D1 now. Never. ever. Accept dropping a program. It’s more than just winning, too. They’re in a bad spot but it’s not impossible to dig out. Not in wrestling’s culture to just quit on something when it’s hard. I won’t accept that as an option. None of us should.

Poquoson. We were in the Top 25 from 97-99. Only missed four Virginia Duals since 1995 (08, 09, 22, 23). So I was there updating the old version of Mat Talk Online.

I was pretty awful, but didn’t step on the mat until I was 16. You don’t get a lot of mat time as a first-year kid on a nationally ranked team. “On the team” for a short spell was how I best describe it. I wrestled more in the offseason than I did for the HS team (never started, zero varsity matches).

Where’d you go to HS?

Bader does a great job with these.

I won't be calculating bonus wins that way in my Preview Guide this year. If you're 50-50 on the season and you have 50 pins, your bonus rate is 50%, not 100%.

Maybe the guys at WS can explain their calculation? To my knowledge, it only counts bouts against D1 competition (excluding teammates), who are eligible and rostered, at the weight class. So if any single matches are counted incorrectly (either way) it would create a discrepancy.

Concordia-Moorhead .. actually announced Swanson on Saturday

Wonder if saying “Farmers Only” will trigger any ads for that to show up?

No, another one. I also wouldn’t call that other guy a politician.

One of my “driving” albums. I can just press play and go.

I don’t see any ads. I use the paid version of the TapaTalk app - and use the brave browser on the web.

Pretty sure it's two weeks from now. Allocations will be determined then as well.

It isn’t DT’s idea, it’s been recycled for a while. I don’t remember when I first heard it, but I recall writing about that concept no less than 15 years ago.