BruceyB

I have finished filling out my brackets. I filled out both the front and backside and have given this board the absolute truest predictions for who will reach All-American status and how they will finish in this years tournament. As a disclaimer, I have been inspired by our friend @jajensen09 and my predictions may be regarded as fanciful, but I hold steadfast that these predictions are as realistic and accurate as anything you will see leading up to next Thursday (do not mind if I make it into the fantasy pool and my team looks drastically different than my predictions in this post). 125. 1. Spratley 2. Robinson 3. Figueroa 4. Peterson 5. Strickenberger 6. Lilledahl 7. Rivera 8. Ventresca 133. 1. Ayala 2. Romney 3. Bailey 4. Bouzakis 5. Byrd 6. Serrano 7. Shawver 8. McGonagle 141. 1. Mendez 2. Alirez 3. Hardy 4. Koderhandt 5. VomBaur 6. Jamison 7. Bartlett 8. Composto 149. 1. Lovett 2. Henson 3. Van Ness 4. McNeil 5. Parco 6. Williams 7. Realbuto 8. D'Emilio 157. 1. Shapiro 2. Kasak 3. Cannon 4. Taylor 5. Teemer 6. Downey 7. Miller 8. Blaze 165. 1. Mesenbrink 2. Hall 3. Caliendo 4. Ramirez 5. Mantanona 6. Steed 7. Barraclough 8. Sparks 174. 1. O'Toole 2. Hamit 3. Haines 4. Braunagel 5. Pinto 6. Kharchla 7. Ruiz 8. Wask 184. 1. Keckeisen 2. Starocci 3. Plott 4. McEnelly 5. Berge 6. Foca 7. Allred 8. Arnold 197. 1. Ferrari 2. Little 3. Buchanon 4. Cardenas 5. Barr 6. Salazar 7. Beard 8. Glazier 285. 1. Steveson 2. Hendrickson 3. Kervliet 4. Trumble 5. Schultz 6. Feldman 7. Trephan 8. Mullen

I think the problem has more to do with the amount of holes in Iowa's line-up than their ethos. If you're PSU and your entire roster is absolutely loaded, there is little need to recruit outside help.. yet they win National title after national title and continue to recruit/bring in transfers over their current rostered athletes. I don't fault them for it at all, but to act like your son's commitment is going to be better honored at PSU vs Iowa is just inherently false. These coaches are going to put together the best teams they can. It's not about guaranteeing a roster spot for four years to a commit.

I'm not sure if you've seen this match. But once you have, I don't think you can be anything but a VV fan. Starts at 23 minutes, but just watch the third if you don't want to sit through the whole thing. Vombaur might have the highest attack rate per match in the country.

I might just ride with @jajensen09 for the next 11 days. So if anyone sees me gassing him up between now and then, just know I'm a fan of chaos. Les' ride.

I am far from a PSU fan. Carry on. I'm looking forward to your predictions for the next week+.

I'm firmly on the side of the two athletes that were allowed to wrestle, but it's been pretty well documented with what happened. I think it's pretty obvious why their isn't any photo/video evidence of what was taking place during weigh-ins. CP did say that during the decision making progress, they did actually use surveillance footage from the cameras in the weigh-in area. At the end of the day, the person with the final say was some higher-up in the B12 that has no direct connection to wrestling. Word is that a wrestler cut off the waist-band of their underwear in attempt to make their underwear lighter.

Mesenbrink coming in over Facundo who was a top #3 recruit with 3 years of eligibility remaining. Dean coming in over Beard who was a returning AA with 3 years of eligibility remaining. Then recently their abundance of wrestlers who will be overlapping in eligibility and weights. @VakAttack you know I have my fair share of criticism towards Iowa, but I also find the hypocrisy of always casting Iowa as the villains amusing. Nearly every school is going to bring in a high level transfer if they have the means and a spot that is questionable in their line-up. Wrestlers, just like coaches, should be aware that in today's college landscape, no athlete is guaranteed to stay at your program for their entire career, and likewise the athletes should know that if they aren't getting the job done, these top programs will go out and find someone that will. The difference between PSU and everyone else is that they have turned high level recruits into national champions at a rate that hasn't been even remotely comparable by any other team in the past 15 years. What about Facundo's parents who watched PSU bring in a four-year-wonder from the portal that wipes out their son's ability to get in the line-up at his optimal weight for the rest of his career? The Mirasola's who may or may not make the starting line-up next year, especially if Ghadiali transfers in. Joe Sealey who committed and then Mesenbrink comes in, and PSU recruits PJ Duke?

I mean, if you don't want to pay for live TV.. what are you complaining about? I can't watch my local MLB or NHL team without paying for access to the channels they play on either. So many people want to act like these businesses should just stream all of their wrestling content for free as some sort of charity to the sport, as those complaining hide behind the veil of "grow the sport." You know what helps grow a sport? Revenue. Paying and viewing the events that bring in money to those covering the sport through advertisements. Everyone wants to talk about growing the sport until they have to spend a few bucks to watch.

8-1 vs 8-3 is a no brainer? Hardy has wrestled a much more difficult schedule than Bartlett, and it's not Hardy's fault that he didn't get to avenge his loss because Beau lost in the semis. Why are we rewarding Bartlett for losing to someone ranked lower than Hardy by keeping him #1..? As for 125, you can drop Ramos and limit how high you want to put Lilledahl, but you cannot have Ramos above Lilledahl after getting dominated like that.

What are we actually doing here? 7/10 just for the depth of the hate glasses you're looking through.

Who's scoring points for them this year other than Meyer and Foca?

You realize wrestlers don't have to win the tournament to score points.. right? They will win the tournament more than handily if they have 0 champs..

I would question whether this is true or not. High conference finish usually results in higher seeds at Nationals, which in turn results in an easier path to placing. A wrestler that has had a good season but has a poor showing at conferences often gets dropped out of a top 10 seed and then fail to place. You start by saying that regular season is a better indicator, but then change the argument to the seeds of wrestlers at nationals.. two different things. This strawman argument isn't relevant. I never said that there could never be a #1 seed that lost at conferences, but just that given two sets of quality resumes, I would defer to the wrestler who got the job done most recently.

In my opinion, the rule does more harm than good, especially at a qualifying tournament where a DQ means a season is over. As long as a wrestler is on the scale and makes weight at the correct time, is it that big of a deal if he's working out instead of sitting in the weigh-in area doing nothing? It doesn't give an advantage to be cutting 10 minutes later than the current rule set, but hurts the product to DQ the wrestlers. I also think it cheapens a UNI conference title if they win due to an OKST wrestler being DQ'd on a technicality. At the end of the day, having the best wrestlers in these tournaments is best for the sport. As long as they aren't doing anything malicious and make the weight at the correct time, let it go.

On FRL it was stated that the undergarment must not be altered from it's original state and must cover "both buttocks." And yes, they must wear underwear in weigh-ins now, apparently.

Honestly, I think Vombaur would might have an easier case for #1 than Hardy since he actually beat the #1 wrestler in the country to reach the finals and is now 1-0 against Bartlett this season, and then would have beaten Hardy to win the most recent H2H matchup and tie the series for this season. I think outplacing Mendez at conferences cancels out the H2H win, and no one in the B12 has the credentials for the #1. That being said, I obviously don't think Vombaur would be the favorite to win NCAAs, but I think he could be granted the #1 seed for winning the right matches at the right time.

Agree to disagree. I just can't accept a guy failing to win his own conference and then being granted the number one seed in an even more difficult tournament.

Like I said, Iowa is going to have 4 AAs and Caliendo is one of them. Obviously that omission changes things considerably.

Iowa could very realistically come away from the NCAA tournament with just 3 AAs. Their only wrestlers that will be seeded top 8 are going to be Ayala, Parco, Buchanon, and possibly Kueter after taking third this past weekend?

I would say that injuries are separate from actual results from conferences. That being said, I do think if you're too injured to take the mat at conferences, you probably don't deserve the easiest path to the finals. There should be some punishment if you don't participate. Last year with Starocci was definitely egregious though.

How am I overweighing the conference tournament in these two circumstances? Bartlett's only top 10 wins this season are Mendez and Hardy. He lost to Vombaur in his only other top 10 matchup. Hardy matches his best win, and just won the tournament that he took third place in. If Bartlett actually notched some other notable wins this season, maybe I would feel more strongly that he deserves to be the 1 despite the conference tournament. PSU's schedule is basically what you just described.. get to 15 matches and roll the dice at B10s.. they rolled the dice and Bartlett didn't get the job done.

Luke Lilledahl doesn't get the 1 seed over the guy he just majored because he has one more loss on the season? That's actually insane. If Brock Hardy didn't go to CKLV he would be a 19-1 conference champion, and I don't think anyone would question what his seed should be at NCAAs. His losses are to #1, #4, and #5. Bartlett's single Vombaur loss is worse than any of the three that Hardy has this year, and they share their best win respectively against Mendez. You're punishing Hardy for two losses against top 5 opponents that happened 3 months ago, and pardoning Bartlett for losing to the #8 ranked wrestler two days ago.

See my above question to Portajohn and feel free to give your answer. I'm not trying to be combative, I just can't think of anyone who I thought was robbed of a 1 seed after losing at conferences.

Idk. Just a random number that seemed logical.

Who has lost at conferences that you would have seeded #1 at NCAAs? Are you just arguing about a fictitious scenario that may occur one day, or.. what are we doing here?