Idaho

People are already saying Welsh to PSU... ughhh.

I heard Bakersfield does a pretty good job in these kinds of situations.

True.... but are the cast offs - 3rd 4th 5th guys in a weight, going to be of use to a mid-size program? I see them being more of an asset to very small programs in D1 , D2 or NAIA.

Nah, just go ahead and assume you got it and just start wrestling the season.

Yep... top level guys who are stuck behind an AA at a big school will transfer down usually, giving a mid-tier team a good transfer (Bear Claw). However, they can always re-enter the portal in one year. Good recruits who get developed at mid-tier schools will get plucked away because of NIL and transfer up. Kids with "circumstances" will often transfer down then back up again (Ferrari). Mid-Tier teams that land an elite recruit, most likely won't keep them (Bailey LR).

Great video.... WAY TO GO IDAHO! On a side note, some good friends of our had a son who wrestled. At district his head coach had him med FFT out his last match. He could have wrestled, and would have would have wrestled a guy he hammered all season. I told him if he MedFFts out that he ends up with the last allocation and would end up the last seed and draw Lovett first round. The coach was a cocky guy who wrestled in college and was a Fargo champ...he argued with me and said I didn't know what I was talking about with seeding. Two days later he had Lovett in the bracket first round and was teched in the 2nd round.

Yes, I agree they fundraise..but as you said, it's much easier because of large donors. The same fundraiser can be done at Iowa and Utah Valley, and. you will get two different outcomes because the potential is much greater at Iowa because of who attends. Smaller programs depend much more on their fundraisers. Going down to the JC level, Clackmanas CC biggest fundraiser was their crab feast every fall. It would raise approximately 30k if I remember correctly. It was a difference maker for them.

This is spot on. There are approximately 5 teams that will spend lots of money every year on transfers and recruits - PSU, Iowa, Ok State, Michigan and Ohio State to name a few. They have that money because of big donors. There are another 5 teams or so that will be a second tier of spending... then another 5 teams are so in the 3rd tier. Everyone else beyond that are developing guys that are good but not great recruits. Yes, there will be teams here and there that will sneak in and get a trophy without spending an absurd amount of money - that's the exception and not the rule. They have to find ways and money to keep the kids they develop from going to one of the top teams for big money. We have discussed this many times on the board over the last 5 years since this all started to roll out. The rich get richer has happened exactly as we predicted....and will continue to happen. It is what it is.

Having been involved in a program for quite a while, I cannot disagree with this more. Please give me an example of a school that has chosen "not to act"? What does that even mean? Cal State Bakersfield is a school that has to self fund 100% - their entire program. On top of just running the program with coaching, academics, recruiting, etc. - they have to raise money for the operating costs of the entire program. It's a good thing they have Stephen Neal working on that. So while some schools have massive donors, CSUB does not. Please don't say they can just work harder and go out and get some. They are working their butts off to do that. In reality, Bob can write a check this morning for 50k that he wont' notice.... the time and effort to raise that at Bakersfield is very heavy. The amount of money that teams have to work with is all about their donor base, not how hard they working. PSU, Iowa, etc. are not doing the same kind of fund raising that low budget teams are doing. All they do is ask for a check and they get it. In turn, they get to focus their time and energy on coaching, developing and recruiting.

Sure, if you were to take them out of their era and drop them into the 2025 season they would certainly lose because technique, training methods, technology and diet/nutrition are all much better now. But if you were to give them a year to learn new techniques, I bet it would be a different story....they had the right mindset, athleticism and toughness...I have no doubt their training regimen would catch them up to speed.

R

PSU just gained Jayden James as a flip from VT...so they are doing alright.

Agree... some underperformed for PSU and Nebraska would have to keep the same results or better.

Portal going crazy ... 3x AA Lachlan McNeil Brian Soldano A Jayden James flip from VT to Penn State Spencer Moore Man, there are some quality guys switching singlets

I would love to see Nebraska win...I'm an Idaho Lovett fan... but they are more like 3-4 top level guys away. PSU returns 115 points in 6 weights (excluding Davis who will be replaced by Ono) Nebraska returns 87 points in 8 weights Nebraska has to pick up 23 points if PSU only wrestles with 6 guys... however we know that they just reload... Ono, Blaze, Desmond, Mirasola x2, Sealy, Cochran, Ryder... out of that group guys will rise up, fill spots and score some points at the NCAA. Even if each one scored 7 points on the conservative side, that's still 143 points... that's 56 points to make up. I would love to see a team like Nebraska do it, but they would need a lot of help.

So what are you renaming the Hodge then? The "Biggest win of the year award because we threw Hodge criteria out the window"?

Yep - I know...

Are Byrd and Big Byrd a package deal?

Oregon State 125 - Maximo Renteria NQ 133 - Gabe Whisenhunt 141 - Nash SIngleton NQ 149 - Hamblin NQ/ Stiles AA 6th 157 - Hamblin NQ/ Stiles AA 6th 165 - Murphy Menke - Pac 12 Champ 174 - Matthew Olguin - NQ 184 - TJ McDonnell NQ 197 - Justin Rademacher NQ HWT - Aden Attao - Fr

Carroll originally committed to Illinois - with their recent improvement I wonder if he has thoughts of going back to the school he never actually went to.

What if the eyeball test was the test...

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What if the eyeball test was the test...