Voice of the Quakers

Yup

Completely understand your sentiment here. A couple thoughts... RMU is not doing this out of the goodness of Its heart. This is just one of many small colleges struggling with enrollment. Next year they'll have 20-30 more tuition-paying undergrads (I'm guessing the athletic aid offered to wrestlers will be nil) because they are fielding a sport that is very popular locally, and most kids don't go to college too far from home. Plus, reasonable competition, starting with the PSAC schools, is already nearby to keep costs low. Speaking of nearby, could this move encourage more schools in the Horizon League to consider adding wrestling? Cleveland State's history with wrestling is checkered, but would they or Youngstown State, Wright State, Oakland (MI), IU-Indy, Purdue-Fort Wayne, Green Bay, Milwaukee, etc., be more willing to add wrestling now that one league school has jumped in, particularly if RMU is successful? Tell me how their enrollment is trending and/or how many more tuition dollars they want to funnel to pay for their men's basketball team and I will give you those odds. I live in FLA - looking forward to seeing Penn at IMG next month - and I would kill for ANY NCAA school here to add wrestling. I'm sure our friends at the NWCA are using an "all of the above" program to get new schools to add wrestling to their athletics program wherever they are. But, for now, encouraging the RMUs of the world to add wresting and seeing the sport grow school by school from the hotbeds out may be our best bet over the next 5-10 years.

The Senate has officially passed the PCSA. The House is not scheduled to return to session until mid-November. https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/50056206/us-senate-votes-77-22-pass-protect-college-sports-act

A good read about the issues the PCSA will face in the House, particularly from Republicans. It's a very long article, so I won't repost in full here. You should be able to access the article with a simple no-pay sign-up. The closing: Even if the House passes the PCSA, the bill would have to return to the Senate for another vote if amendments are made—causing an even bigger time crunch. Democrats would likely have to get on board with a more conservative bill, particularly with regard to the international athlete ban and employee status ban. If the legislation can’t get to Trump’s desk before the next Congress is sworn in Jan. 3, the legislative process would have to restart. https://frontofficesports.com/article/house-republican-opposition-protect-college-sports-act-score/

Because you asked... Given colleges are going to be given antitrust protections by potential passage of the PCSA, I not only think collective bargaining is preferable in this situation but also necessary. In other industries without antitrust protections, I'm not so keen on organized labor. With that being said, I will restrict my further comments on this topic to the topic. Thanks.

Great summary of the PCSA in the Front Office Sports article @JasonBryant shared via his newsletter this morning. https://frontofficesports.com/article/protect-college-sports-act-senate-bill-explaining-rules-changes/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email Here is the key quote regarding wrestling: Finally, while the bill requires schools to maintain a certain number of women’s and Olympic sports roster spots (commensurate with the amount in the 2024–25 academic season), the provision only applies to Division I and FBS institutions that report more than $80 million in annual athletics revenue. In the short-term, Power 4 schools would have to maintain their current participation in Women's and Olympic sports. However, even if there is no "sunset" for this or other provisions in the PCSA, I doubt there is any expectation that schools are going to be required to field every team it currently sponsors in perpetuity. This bill is about college football and college football only - OK, it's 95-99 percent about college football - and Congress and/or the general public is not going to react if schools pull the plug on non-revenue sports if said schools think they can get one more win for their football teams. So, my advice to the group is the same as it was when I first started posting on this board when it was at TheMat.com/USA Wrestling 20+ years ago. College wrestling teams and their supporters need to fundraise, fundraise, fundraise NOW and become as self-sufficient as possible. Raisning money once the decision has been made to cut the program is too late. I'll keep posting in this thread as developments warrant.

The House has already canceled any remaining votes before this year’s elections. So, even if the Senate does pass the PSCA - and yesterday’s procedural vote did make Senate approval more likely - I’m still not sure there is enough time during the December “lame duck” session for the House to pass any related college sports bill that could be reconciled with the PCSA. The focus will be spending bills and other bills that can pass on a party line given the historical likelihood that the House will flip to Democrats for 2027-28. And, a college sports bill without collective bargaining rights for college athletes like the PSCA has, IMO, zero chance of being taken up by Democrats in the next Congress. We shall see.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/49952533/senate-votes-begin-consideration-protect-college-sports-act

This is in my area of work. Chances of the Protect College Sports Act passing in this Congressional cycle are pretty low, IMO. There are enough detractors in the Senate to prevent it coming up to vote this week. Opposition in the House could be even stronger. Personally, I'd love to see a much more limited bill move forward the next Congressional cycle that provides limited antitrust protection to colleges to allow them to set rules regarding eligibility (5 in 5) and transfers. But, bills rarely get smaller when they are reintroduced into successive Congresses - this is the 2nd Congress in which the PCSA has been introduced, and most non-spending bills need three cycles to garner enough support for passage - so the PCSA is likely to get larger as we move forward. If passed, I would expect lawsuits to be immediately filed against it, leading to more of the chaos we've seen in the runup to this year's college football season. Ultimately, I'm not a big organized labor supporter, but the only stop to all of this is going to be collective bargaining similar to what we see in professional sports. The money in college sports has simply gotten too big to handle any other way. So, back to the original question...I don't worry too much about how the PCSA will impact college wrestling because I don't think this version of the bill is going to pass. We'll see what comes down the road in due time.

IMO, here is what's going to happen in the Ivy League: 1) Moving forward, almost all ivy League wrestlers will delay enrollment until the academic year they turn 20 - not dissimilar to what's been already happening in Ithaca and Philly. 2) Eligibility for the 5th year is still being debated by the Ivy League but will likely be denied in the short term. (The Ivy League will not budge on limiting intercollegiate athletics to undergraduate students.) Students who have five year undergraduate programs, suffer injuries or are working around roster management issues will likely continue to work the system as they have before to wrestle 4 years out of 5. 3) For the most elite wrestlers, coaches will encourage their kids to wrestle the first 4 years, get their degree, and then cash in with a Power 4 program for their 5th year. In the meantime, Ivy League athletes will still able to make individual NIL deals as before - the schools cannot collectivize NIL fundraising or payments. Long story short, I'm not sure much changes. The basic Ivy League sports offering remains unchanged: a great education at reduced tuition, leading to above average future earnings potential. Won't blame kids for accepting 6-figure cash/NIL offers straight out of high school, but I'm guessing the truly big offers for high school recruits from Power 4 conferences will be reduced over time as athletic departments learn to better manage transfers and funnel more money back to their football programs.

That's what I and others thought about the World Cup. We were proven wrong and I think we will be proven wrong with these Olympics, as well. People are increasingly willing to pay a premium for premium events. Of note, I was not drawn to purchase tickets in either Drop 1 or 2, but my travelling buddy for the 1996 games was drawn for Drop 2. He saw the prices and sessions available (no medal rounds for wrestling) and passed. If I attend LA (and i do still want to go), my expectations are now to double my budget for half of the tickets/sessions I was planning to purchase. I will probably suck it up and purchase a package directly from USA Swimming if available because I think their hospitality may be better than what LA 28 is offering. I assume everyone here is already aware you can skip the ticket line if you pay for premium tickets. Generally looking at a minimum of $450 per ticket for wrestling prelims and $750 per ticket for wrestling finals. Link below. https://hospitality.la28.org/en/products?zoneName=Exposition%2BPark%2BZone,DTLA%2BZone,Carson%2BZone&events=WRE

Register for the ticket draw with the link below. I was not picked for today's draw - congrats to @flyingcement on scoring his tickets. https://get.support.tickets.la28.org/hc/en-us/articles/22981999354396-How-can-I-buy-tickets-to-the-LA28-Olympic-and-Paralympic-Games

Because wrestling fans like us will tune in to RAF 08 regardless, but UFC and other casual fight fans will tune in because of Davlishvili-Cejudo. Making that match as big a deal as possible will only increase interest for these casual fans. The goal is to get as big an audience and make as much money for everybody, including our wrestlers, as possible - this is the way. The only change I would make to the lineup is to put the Maroulis bout just before the Snyder bout. She is one of the RAF champs, and casual fans may be more aware of her than Zahid Valencia or Aeodon Sinclair.

My vote is for Cross!

Father Time is undefeated.