Major Kong

This is what worries me re: NU. With Ken Kraft gone, what influence does wrestling have at the school? Any decent hs dual gets more fans than NU home matches. Most students don't know the school even has a team. The program is way down and looks like it may be for the foreseeable future. Offhand I can't think of how the University objectively can say that having a team is important, given the schools priorities. All this when just a couple years ago we had multiple AAs, a National Champ, and a top 6 finish. Impossible for me to not worry this may be a way out for the administration.

Sadly, yes. At NU, it's been all about the Benjamins for the last several decades.

I think he'll stay at NU. Just guessing really, but he's been traveling with the team and seems very supportive.

Fair. They would likely have the same take at the schools I mentioned. But NU is definitely not looking to have a University "the football team can be proud of". And the vast majority of alums and students are proud of that.

I don't think that's quite fair. They somewhat care about the high profile sports, and they care about the others the way Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Duke etc. do. Not the way OSt, Penn St, Mich. etc. do.

Several of my classmates have them!

Agree, unless it's Law or Med school, and those are rarities for D1 athletes. Stanford seems to be overcoming the obstacles NU faces quite well. Not sure if it's the campus/weather/location or NIL money. NU will be hard pressed to compete in either area.

6th in 2022, thank you! NU faces some big challenges in the NIL/transfer portal era. Right now we do not have a B10 lineup. Chumbley, Mayfield (who is injured), Fisher and Bates are the only starters who are competitive. So far, only one of the freshman appears to definitely have a potentially bright future - and he's redshirting. I don't have the answers but Storny has his work cut out.

Are the refs actually that inept? I mean missing it live is bad, but watching it again and making the wrong call is embarrassing.

No that's not the case. Although I have plenty of criticisms of the school, they don't have an anti-athlete bias. They just expect them to meet minimum academic requirements like the rest of the students.

I heard it somewhat differently, but it was a bad situation all around.

It's all a bit of a mystery - unless we accept the obvious answer - it's just not that important to the schools/alums. When I was at NU most of the students didn't know we had a wrestling team. And we were pretty good - multiple AAs, top 10-15 finishes. Probably the best mens sports team at the school, but no one cared. Judging by the attendance I have seen at home matches, nothing has changed.

Because they still have to pay all the ancillary costs for them. They also have Title IX considerations on roster size. They have 22 on the roster this year. Same as Harvard. When my kid had a visit at Harvard some years ago he was told "we'd love to have you, but can't use an admissions arrow on you" and "you can walk on but it will be very hard to roster you unless you are starting". They are just not going to throw money at their programs, and as private schools have a somewhat different mandate. In fact I know of kids recently on both NU and Harvard rosters whose families made large contributions to the schools. Neither kid ever wrestled a dual! A few comparable schools - Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, Lehigh, seem to have private resources helping the programs.

No, not 9.9

Yes, Storny is a smart and cool dude, particularly for a wrestling coach. I just don't know how they compete for talent in today's environment.

Unless there has been a drastic change, they have scholarships. NIL cash I strongly doubt. What happened was the loss of 4 AA's - the three UM transfers and Yayha. And of course Deakin the year before. I'm just guessing the transfers were somewhat unexpected and they were caught short on using available schollys in recruiting. Anyway, it's start from pretty much scratch time. Not sure how they can get recruits like Welch, Tsirtsis etc. in this new $$ age. Could be a rough road ahead. Even Storniolo seems discouraged.

I take it you don't live in the DMV. I do, and your post is a little, ah, over the top. But by all means, stay away from anyone with an AK, and don't show that gold Rolex off at 3am on a dark street.

just bought an all session for $55 on the UMD site

If this nonsense is allowed by schools, coaches, fans or the sport itself, please don't anyone ever talk to me again about how wrestling builds character and teaches integrity, humility, grace under pressure, etc. That will all be just a memory.

Brackets gonna show up or is that too difficult for Flo?

Zero chance. He is as far from the Princeton aesthetic as possible.

Yeah, NU is the Champ of the out division. Three AAs in one year! Sheesh.

This is all football as far as I or anyone else outside the administration knows. Sadly, the top heavyweight wrestling/football recruit has switched to Wisconsin. As an alum I never much cared for Fitz, but what's happened to Storny with the transfers and decommits just ain't right!

Chumbley, Mayfield, Ferrante can all be competitive or better from 149 - 165. Issue is getting someone down to 49. 125, 133, 285 gonna be a bobsled crash.

Chumbley has a decent shot, Tal-Shahar and Fisher are live longshots