BruceyB

Sonny Amato commits to Iowa.

That is pretty incredible. That's probably more quality match-ups than we had all first semester last year. This years season will really be starting off with some fireworks. Love it for the college season. Let's actually see these guys wrestle each other.

He has beaten multiple NCAA AA's during his high school career but won't be able to when he is more mature and training full time in a college room. Got it..

There are a number of things I would argue with in this post, and one of them is that several of the wrestlers on your projected Iowa roster either have stock that has gone significantly down from when they graduated high school, or their expectation was never to be "the guy" at a school like Iowa. But more importantly you are missing the main point. Iowa, one of the biggest names and historied programs in NCAA wrestling, is being passed up in recruiting by Virginia Tech who wasn't even a regular top 10 program when Tom Brands took over the Iowa program. VTech has averaged 49.25 points since 2011 and Iowa has averaged 86.7. I'd love for anyone to explain to me how a program that outperforms Virginia Tech year after year is now having a harder time with recruiting. I think that is all you need to know about the message and culture the Brands are selling and how these high school recruits are receiving it.

See "excluding Freshman who will redshirt."

We're not talking about any high school kid. We're talking about Bo Bassett. TNwrestling asked what the definition of bust is? Say whatever you want about him, but if I wager whether or not he will be a 4x AA, I would absolutely bet on him accomplishing that. And I don't think any 4x AA can be called a bust.

I know it's a Jimmy troll job, but I have been saying it all year.. Iowa can't recruit high schoolers. You can't bring in 1 or 2 high school guys each year and expect to develop as a program. The plug and play transfers is not sustainable. Right now, VT is miles ahead of Iowa in projected 2028 rosters. VT should be very solid in all 10 weights at that time. As of now, Iowa will have Deluca, Ferrari, Luddington, and Kueter/Mocco at heavyweight. They have 6 holes they'll need to address from outside their room/commits. So many schools have been routinely out recruiting Iowa for the past 6+ years that I genuinely don't understand how the Brands are still there. Coaching skills aside, the AD overseeing one of the most proud programs in NCAA wrestling has to see Iowa getting out recruited by schools like Virginia Tech, NC State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan, Missouri, and hell, even UNC has more impressive recruiting classes coming in than Iowa since Koll got there. There is clearly is major issue between the pitch that T&T are selling and what kids are looking for. It is an absolute joke that Iowa can't bring in a top 5 recruiting class. By the name of Iowa wrestling alone an average coach with a decent message should be able to have more success than what is currently taking place. I don't understand how any self respecting Iowa fan sees all of these top 20 big boarders going everywhere BUT Iowa and continue to defend the current state of the program.

The talk is that in the next few years the 5 for 5 rule will more than likely take effect. I suspect we may see a lot of true freshmen battling for spots this year that may have been likely to redshirt in the past.

Is this satire? If so, ignore my next statement, if not, please tell me who else you criticize for treating college as professional sports. This is an interesting take coming from an Oklahoma State fan whose team brought in their Spratley, Figueroa, flipped Vega, brought in Jamison, Swiderski, flipped Robideau, brought in Facundo, and Welsh, and that is just the guys on their roster this year. Last year they had wrestlers that were previously on different rosters at 125, 141, 157, 165, 174, and 285. But yeah, let's blame Bassett for making college into a professional sport. Give me a break. I hope you're criticizing Taylor and staff for flipping guys with previous commitments and bringing in guys from other teams if you're going to criticize a high schooler for changing his mind.

What does this even mean? I would certainly guess he is getting less money from VT than he was offered by Iowa. Who else do you criticize for their "track record?"

It's awesome to see a team like VT land such big names. Nothing but positive for the sport.

WiTh HiS tRaCk ReCorD... he changed his commitment once just like countless other recruits. Get over it. He's not a Ferrari that wrestled for three different high schools and just as many colleges. Robideau, Spratley, Vega, Jamison, Mesenbrink, Kerkvliet, Jayden James, Welsh, Nagao, and how many others aren't wrestling at their original commitment? It. Happens. All. The. Time. Bassett and Miller could have gone to literally any school in the country and chose VT. Will they spend their entire careers there? Who knows in today's NCAA landscape. But the non-stop hate this kid gets is just ridiculous.

This is only the second year I'll actually be watching WNO. I don't follow HS wrestling nearly as closely as you, so a lot of times I'm only familiar with about half the guys competing, but I do think they have some great match-ups for a more casual HS follower like myself. I'm definitely more interested in this lineup than last years. However, if they could have gotten the Miller vs James match, this would have really jumped to another level.

Not to mention that Mocco, Merrill, and Ross have seemed to separate themselves from the field so at Super32 it'd basically be warm-up matches for a finals match against Mocco.

I wanted to say the same thing, but 7 of their starters are wrestling at u23's and Nagao/Davis would have been a downgrade at 141, same with Mirasola at 285, so SVN is really the only guy that is sitting it out.