Former158

A year late for Nickerson and Donny Vinson as I wonder if either would have taken this since it is so close to home? The ideal candidate is someone who has success and experience from a regional public D1 school. SUNY does not have the endowment/booster support of a power conference, but there is a ton of talent within a few hour drive of campus. Plus the school has a good academic reputation for a North East athlete who may not be at the level of a Cornell or other more elite school. A coach who can help keep top NY athletes home and steal a few from NJ and PA would be very successful. But they have to be a solid fundraiser. Ryan LeBlanc- NY roots and HC experience Kyle Dake--not gonna happen but his roots are local....(see gofundme idea below) Scott Green---as long as he has the fundraising/NCAA management experience---likely does Hayden Hidlay--PA roots and must have some good NY recruiting experience from working with Popolozio Zach Esposito---a reach but does he want a head job? Kellen Russell- Finger Lakes Wrestling club/Cornell has roots as far a Binghamton and maybe he could tap his NJ roots. Jordan Burroughs- not gonna happen but his wife is from NY and he is NJ---count me in for a gofundme donation to get him there.

Compared to other big budget sports, elite wrestlers and coaches are shielded from answering tough questions. Imagine if the Snyder situation was basketball, or Bassett was the number 1 football recruit. In these sports, the coach and those around the program would be pressured constantly to make a comment. Instead we live in a world where Snyder was shielded from the media at Final X and Cael never had to go on record about it. While the situation has improved in recent years with FLO and other outlets, sports journalists are still too scared of having access to top programs cut off. Fans and supporters are left to follow social media rumors and debate via chatrooms without fact checking. What would it take to have a better wrestling media other than money?

Going to Final X and want to see Snyder there.....innocent until proven guilty.

Our NY dream would be for a big wrestling donor to revive a SUNY school like UAlbany or Stonybrook and bring in a major talent like Dake-----it is just a dream of course, but a well funded public D1 school in Albany or Long Island would do very well. It is too bad SUNY never made a true flagship campus as it is the only big population state not to do so. Honestly there is no reason Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany or Stony Brook could not have become a Michigan or Penn State

Perhaps late in his career---he needs some break from cutting weight---seems like he is likely walking around close to 180---adding 6-8 pounds of muscle in the 8 months since the Olympics seems very doable.

I can see the argument for track and field but honestly it is much easier to follow for the average viewer. Same with swimming. I don't need to be an expert in the rules for the 400 vs 800 meter to know who is winning. Wrestling has always been too complicated for the fan who hasn't competed. For instance, even most US wrestling fans don't know the strategies for greco vs freestyle vs collegiate.....it is time to have 1 style in my mind.

As much as I would like to see all the stars compete for the benefit of fans---it Seems like the Penn State system is working well---perhaps others should adopt it. Unless we adopt some financial incentives for winning tournaments, there is no glory in going to something just to wrestle when your body has already endured sometimes 20+ years of competition.

Having multiple styles at the Olympic level does not help grow the fan base globally. I am in the camp that we should also adopt freestyle at the high school and collegiate level but that is a different topic. However, would you be willing to give up Greco if it meant we could double the weight classes for Freestyle at the Olympics? I would be in favor of slight rule changes like a clinch or others which would help the throwers---but wouldn't it be sweet to see the clash of styles all vying for the same spots, imagine the freestyle team below---I would imagine a 1-2 greco guys might break through with some tweaks to the rule. 57- Lee 60- Vito 63- Blaze/Gross/Fix/Mckenna 66- Lee 70- Yianni 74- Burroughs 78- Dake 83- Starocci 88- Zahid 92- Brooks 102- Snyder 120- Gable (hopefully he still competes)

Won in 2002---$1,000 which bought me an engagement ring---my wife loves that story of fantasy wrestling proposals........

Most of Cornell's premier duals are held in Newman arena next door which seats about 4,500--they have gotten crowds close to capacity for duals in the past.

Not sure I would call Cornell a small wrestling school. Very true for the likes of current non conference scheduling of Drexel, and Wyoming (small for wrestling). PSU often wrestles Lehigh in a non-conference dual as Cornell is a step above Lehigh in terms of tradition. Is there a beef between Cael and Cornell as they last wrestled in 2008 before Cael arrived?

Cornell has a great fan base, and is a consistent top 10 team challenging for a trophy almost every year. There would be several ranked matches each time they wrestle so I don't see the downside for scheduling a top opponent a short bus ride away. It seems that there must be a distinctive reason as I can't name another two schools in the top 10 who are within 200 miles of each other and basically never wrestle.

It seems Penn State and Cornell have not wrestled each other in a regular season home dual since 2008....when two of the top teams in the country are just 3 hrs apart..... why no duals in the Cael era?---while Cornell would not have much of a shot in most years....the competition would be great for the fans.... https://cornellbigred.com/sports/wrestling/opponent-history/penn-state-university/23

I suspect he is thinking that another World Championship would be a nice way to go out, and lock up his recruiting classes for the next couple of years. Remember Cael came out of retirement in 2011 after losing a bet to motivate his team---and John smith won the 92 Olympics as the OSU head coach and then an NCAA team title 2 years later. DT was at PSU when Cael came out of retirement.......Lots of street cred if he ends up winning and medaling again. With a bye to the finals, not sure there is a downside for OSU unless he gets blown out. https://www.flowrestling.org/people/5934080-cael-sanderson/video?playing=12648947

Who is "Carl" Sanderson.......