fishbane

I'm wouldn't have Ryder in the same tier as the others yet. Welsh - 2nd as a true freshman (174). Has NCAA wins over Wolak, Wask, Turley, Ruth, Ruiz, Kennedy. He was 5th at Senior nationals (86kg) and won the u23 trials (86kg) defeating Jaxon Smith in the best of three. McEnelly - 3rd as a red shirt freshman (184). Has NCAA wins over Smith, Ruth, Plott, Foca, Berger, Allred. He won U20 nationals and the trials beating Sinclair in both. Went on to win the U20 world title (86kg). Ferrari - He will be a redshirt freshman this season. Has not wrestled at NCAAs. Has NCAA win over Plott. Won Soldier Salute (184). Sinclair - He will be a redshirt freshman this season. Has not wrestled at NCAAs. Has NCAA win over Salazar. Won Soldier Salute (197). He won U20 nationals in 2024 (86kg) beating Josh Barr in the finals. In the best of three at the trials he fell to Josh Barr 2 matches to 1. In 2025 lost in the finals of U20 nationals to McEnelly (86kg). At the trials he again fell to McEnelly 2 matches to 1. He also wrestled at Senior nationals in 2025 where he finishes 2nd (92kg) to Hidlay. He beat NCAA champ Michael Macchiavello in the semis and out placed Plott. He has lost to Plott in the dual. Zack Ryder - Will be a redshirt freshman and has not wrestled at NCAAs yet. Has an NCAA win over TJ Stewart. 2025 Southern Scuffle Champion (184). Won 2024 U20 Nationals (79kg) and U20 trials. Went on to place 2nd at U20 worlds. Beat Mulvany and Ruiz at U20 nationals and Gabe Arnold in the best of three at the trials. I'd probably have them McEnelly, Welsh, Sinclair, Ferrari, Smith as the top 5 in that order. If I were forced to rank based on only NCAA results Smith is probably 3 and Ferrari 4 with Allred 5th. Ryder is outside the top 5 regardless, but that could change after national duals.

I'd add St. John's and St. Mary's to that list of schools with successful men's basketball without football. There are more in the Big East with FCS football like Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler. I assume these schools would not max out the revenue share with FCS football players and that puts their basketball team at an advantage too. If a big time program at an FBS school like say Indiana has a bunch of boosters willing to pay $$ to help them win a basketball title that isn't actually that helpful any more. Indiana has to share most of that cap with football and some with other sports. So even if basketball raises a crazy amount of money it can't be used to pay players just coaches, buyouts, facilities, etc. The restrictions on NIL under NIL Go also limits the ability of the basketball boosters to pay the players directly. If a program without a football team or with a FCS program that isn't going to max out the revenue share can recruit a booster to donate they can use that money to directly pay and recruit players without also having to also pry it away from football and other sports in the revenue share. This really limits the ability of a wrestling booster at a Power 5 school like Bob Nicolls. I am sure his real estate management company or any NIL collective associated with him paying wrestlers in Iowa City hundreds of thousands of dollars for some token amount of work will be difficult to get through NIL Go. If he donates money to the program directly that can't really be used to recruit wrestlers because it means giving basketball, football, woman's basketball, etc less revenue share money. It sort of back to the pre NIL days for non-revenue sports at institutions with FBS football teams. I'd almost be surprised if an SEC or Big Ten program doesn't do your Temu suggestion. There are teams in those conferences that haven't put that much effort in fielding a competitive football program in the past. Now the incentive of excellent football bringing in money that can be used to help other sports has been flipped on its head. Mediocre football on a budget could provide more high impact $$ to other sports. Overall you are correct, but when it comes to the Power 4 FBS football conferences any team in that group can afford to exceed the cap. The $20.5 million cap is supposed to be 22% of the average sports revenue at these schools, but since only some revenue counts they all have revenue over $100M. None are below average. Even a program near the bottom of the Power 4 in revenue, Colorado, has no problem paying Deion Sanders $9M/year with $30+ guaranteed. If it's tight right now its because these schools have been spending like they don't have to pay players for so long.

The cameras have not gone away. The timeline was City council voted unanimously to not renew the contract in May. In July the Mayor unilaterally extended the contract at a value just under $500k so he would not need city council approval. The cameras are all still there.

These aren't speed cameras. In many ways they are more intrusive than speed cameras. These record and log the license plate of any car that passes them. They can even "fingerprint" a car without a license plate or an unreadable license plate with things such as color, damage, make, model, etc. This can be extremely useful in solving cases of hit and run accidents and stolen vehicles. It monitors in real time and you can make a hot list to receive a notification when a particular plate is detected. The reality is that it creates a searchable database of the travel of all cars in a region. This data is usually shared between agencies so any police department/agency that is a subscriber can see the data that the camera's in use by any other have logged. Without a warrant at an instant a police officer at any department subscribed to flock can see anywhere a flock camera has detected your car. You can see where some of these cameras are located here. It's crowd sourced so it's not complete. In many areas it is difficult to take a trip of any length via the most convenient roads without encountering a camera. This issue doesn't have the normal two sides. It isn't Democrat vs Republican or left vs right. It's more about privacy which is something I think people anywhere on the political spectrum can appreciate. This topic started because the mostly (entirely?) democrat Denver City council voted unanimously to not renew the contract amid reports that ICE was using them to track and deport illegal immigrants. The mayor that brought them back anyway - also a democrat. Sadly I don't think they will get any money back. These cameras are a subscription service. Often times if you threaten or inquire about cancelling a subscription you will offered a discounted rate. I suppose it works the same for cities.

Did something change? It looks the same as it always has to me.

Denver ended up not ditching flock cameras unfortunately. Despite the city council voting 12-0 to not renew that contract in May the mayor unilaterally sign an extension for $498,500 in July. Why $498,500 and not $666,000? The mayor does not need city council approval for expenditure $500,000 or less. Ridiculous. https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2025/09/02/license-plate-denver-readers-mass-surveillance "The mayor's administration unilaterally approved a new contract with the company in July worth $498,500, just below the threshold requiring council approval, Parady said in a statement last week."

$127k is not nothing compared to pre NIL. That is an extra 1-4 scholarships depending on the school. My understanding is that any scholarship awards in excess of the pre-House limit would count towards the revenue share limit. So instead of 9.9 scholarships a team could award another $127k in scholarship money.

I would think that non-football schools could be at a significant advantage here. They should have the same $20.5M cap as any other school and could spend it all on basketball. It is unlikely that a non-football school would have the revenue to max it out, but they could more creatively use their athletic budget since player salaries wouldn't be constrained by football. On the high end you have Kansas paying Bill Self $8M+ and with the rest of his staff that $10M+ in coach salaries, but can only pay players $4M. If a non-football school could get half that budget they could spend $1.5M on coaches and $5.5M on players and outbid essentially all FBS schools on the top recruits. The thing with NBA G league, EuroLeague, minor league baseball, minor league hockey, CFL ect. is that the coaches get developmental/minor league money too. I seriously doubt any coach/manager in any of those leagues out earns his entire roster. The top NCAA basketball and football coaches would be in the top 10 coaches' salaries in the NBA and NFL. Last year 45 D1 basketball coaches made over $3M. It's a way better gig than coaching in the G League.

It wouldn't make sense for non-profit universities to have a profit sharing plan with the athletes. The issue being pointed out in this post is essentially that the salary cap is too low for the schools to pay the athletes their free market value. The revenue share cap is $20.5MM which is calculated based on 22% of the average revenue of the power 5 schools, but not all revenue is counted. Booster contributions are not. The NFL which does as good a job with parity as any major pro league in North America splits revenue 52/48 with the players not 22/78. They also attempt to fully monetize their superfans by selling them expensive multi year contracts for luxury boxes and courtside seats, rather than gifts that don't count as revenue. 22% should allow any power 5 team to pay and is far less than what the average power 5 team should be able to afford. If it was closer to 50/50 then you'd see some teams on the low end not being able to meet it and a revenue share between teams like many pro league use might be necessary. You have PSU paying James Franklin $8M to not coach. They will have to pay his replacement a similar sum and adding on assistants their budget for football coach salaries is going to be about $20M/year until Franklin takes another gig or 2031. Their cap for football player salaries is $15-16M. These power 5 football programs can pay players more than that. The money is there they have just been spending it in other ways.

It's not difficult to understand the standoff if this is the case. With a revenue sharing limit of $5M on the high end this means that budget for paying players is less than the salary of the head coach almost everywhere. I guess that is more in line with what it should be when it was just a scholarship, but way out of sorts with any professional league. The revenue share % is scheduled to increase over time under the house settlement so maybe it eventually reaches something reasonable.

If you are taking a prop bet on what a coach says at a preseason dual tournament you might have a gambling problem. "Come on Manning! Find out what this guy is up to? I need one more to hit my parlay!" https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPta1_6ka0g/

Yes what's not clear? 3rd in the state of NJ at 144lbs. 3rd nationally at 150lbs. 3rd overall in the class of 2027.

#3 Overall Junior Amato Commits to Iowa

Flo has Amato #30 on their big board, but the story on the front page here at Intermat says he is #3 overall. Are the ranking services really that different? Any reason why?

The rule change wouldn't really help Brands. He bet on Iowa's football team, no?

The two of you are being ridiculous and the proposed wager is dumber than the ragebait. Not taking the bet means nothing. Who would take that bet? A bet with a random dude on the internet for $1000 with a super long time horizon. If you win the bet it might resolve itself as early as March 2027. But someone considering taking the the other side doesn't think that's what is going to happen. With all the ways for you to win (Any NCAA title by Bassett and you win) the earliest you could lose the best in March 2030, but it could be 2031 or later.

I don’t think I’d have (m)any of them with their stock significantly down since high school. You could only reasonably be referring to class of 2023 and 2024 recruits and most of those are stock up. I’d only really have Block as stock down, but he hasn’t wrestled much. What you classify as the main point is really beside the point. I just don’t see what you are saying about Iowa having a harder time recruiting. Iowa’s recruiting looks to be exactly where it’s always been under Brands. Over his entire tenure Iowa landed top 5 recruits at a rate of about 2 top 5 recruits every 5 years and he has never landed the #1 overall (Metcalf #2 behind Schlatter, Lee #2 behind Fix, Keuter #2 behind Shapiro, and Ferrari #2 behind Lilledahl). Missing out on Bassett, Miller, and the Raneys I am sure is disappointing, but even two of them would have been a high water mark for Brands’s recruiting. Brands recruiting in line with his historic average isn’t entirely bad news for the Hawkeyes because Iowa’s results have routinely exceeded his recruiting. Over the past 20 years many coaches have out recruited Brands but only one program has been able to consistently finish ahead of Iowa at NCAAs. The question at issue here is will getting these two recruits allow VT to pull ahead of Iowa at NCAAs? It’s possible, but somewhat unclear at this point. VT will need to find 5 AAs or 4 high AAs to be top 3 team at NCAAs and at this point those are almost entirely theoretical. Bassett is the only guy in the potential lineup that has beaten a wrestler that’s stood on the podium at NCAAs.

Virginia Tech is ahead of them, but it's not by that much. Consider these potential 2027-28 Lineups for Virginia Tech and Iowa without any transfers. Virginia tech 125: Dickman #16 (2026) 133: Seidel #10 (2025)/Campbell #49 (2024) 141: Gorman #57 (2025)/Seidel #10 (2025) 149: Bassett #1 (2026) 157: Gaj #24 (2025) 165: Church #29 (2023)/Miller #1 (2027) 174: Burton #14 (2025)/Miller #1 (2027) 184: Wright #10 (2024)/Miller #1 (2027) 197: Sasso #26 (2023) 285: Mullen #11 (2023) Iowa 125: DeLuca #9 (2025) 133: Peterson #52 (2023) 141: Block #22 (2023) 149: Voinovich #99 (2024) 157: Estrada #48 (2024) 165: Torres #69 (2025) 174: Arnold #5 (2023) 184: Ferrari #2 (2024) 197: Luddington #15 (2025) 285: Keuter #2 (2023)/Mocco #15 (2026) That's a pretty close dual. Iowa could be favoured in the 4 heaviest weights in addition to 125. They could potentially also get a win at either 133/141 or 157. It's possible for Iowa to win this. It could even be a blowout Iowa win depending on how these guys develop over the next 2 years. Compare that Iowa lineup with the Nebraska team that took 2nd at 2025 NCAAs. Potentially more talent out of high school and without the benefit of a transfer and 3 guys that are 6-7 years out of HS. 125: Smith Unranked (2019) Transfer 133: Van Dee #93 (2022) 141: Hardy #9 (2018) 149: Lovett #16 (2019) 157: Taylor #30 (2022) 165: Minto Unranked (2023) 174: Pinto #11 (2021) 184: Allred #17 (2020) 197: McDanel #37 (2023) 285: Andrews #36 (2022)

Iowa really hasn't been out-recruited by those teams at least in the 2023-2027 classes. I looked at Flo rankings from those years for my earlier post and shockingly Nebraska only has a single top 20 commit over those 5 classes. Iowa fans should not be envious of Nebraska's recruiting Team # top 5/# top 10/# top 20 ranked by total top 20, then top 10, then top 5. PSU 5/9/13 (Includes Ryder who transferred out, but not Welsh who transferred in. Ono not included) OSU 7/11/12 Virginia Tech 2/4/7 Iowa 3/4/6 Ohio State 1/3/5 (Includes Welsh who transferred out) Cornell 2/2/4 Minnesota 1/1/4 Michigan 0/1/4 Missouri 1/2/3 NC State 0/1/2 Nebraska 0/0/1 UNC 0/0/1

Getting out recruited by Virgina Tech proved to be the end of the line for Brands's predecessor at Iowa. Could it be the begining of the end for him too?

These guys won’t be on the team together until 2028 NCAAs at the earliest. It’s too soon to tell whether they will be a top three team in 2028, but looking at the recruiting classes that will be competing in that tournament (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027) they are #3 in recruiting. They have 2 top 5, 4 top 10, and 7 top 20 recruits from those classes. Which is well behind PSU (5/9/13 + Ono) and OSU (7/11/12), but ahead of Iowa (3/4/6) and everyone else. Virgina Techs top 20 recruits from the relevant classes are #1 (2026) Basset, #1 (2027) Miller, #10 (2024) Wright, #10 (2025) Seidel, #11 (2023) Mullen, #14 (2025) Burton, #16 (2026) Dickman. compare that with Iowas top 20 recruits over the same period #2 (2023) Keuter, #2 (2024) Ferrari, #5 (2023) Arnold, #9 (2025) DeLuca, #15 (2025) Ludington, #15 (2026) Mocco Even though Virginia Tech is slightly ahead of Iowa in recruiting they will have a lot of work. Iowa has the budget and ability to bring in transfers to plug any holes.

This isn't true. Many illegal aliens enter the country 100% legally and then do not leave when they are supposed to. The employer is often just as much or more to blame for the fraud than the unauthorized employee.

The two schools we are measuring Bishop McCort against have been historically good. Faith Christian has set the team point record at PIAAs two years in a row. In 2023 Faith Christian won AA states with 151 team points that was the AA record at the time and only 1 point behind 2015 Franklin Regional (4 champs with Brown, Lee, Kemmerer, Maruca, and Shields in the lineup) for the overall record. In 2024 McCort had the 3rd most ever team points (151.5 now 5th) and Faith Christian had the most (167.0 now 3rd most). Last year Faith Christian broke their own record (232.5) and McCort finished 2nd with 2nd most team points ever (218.5). Wyoming Seminary peaked in 2024 when they broke the scoring record at National Preps with 395.5 team points. That team was stacked with several top recruits. Luke Lilledahl (#1 2024), Joseph Sealey (#6 2024), Jude Correa (#12 2025), Shamus Regan (#22 2027), Nathan Desmond (#31 2025), Vince Bouzakis (#40 2025), Matthew Botello (#47 2025), Dominic Federici (#51 2024), Jake Dailey (#53 2024), Davis Motyka (#89 2024) That's 3 in the top 12, 7 in the top 50 and 10 in the top 100. Eleven of their 14 starters are either wrestling in D1 or committed to wrestle D1. Another, Shamus Regan, is #22 on the 2027 big board and highly likely to wrestle at a D1 college. The remaining two starters weren't bad. Both were 2nd at prep states and one placed 8th at National Preps.

At the end of the season the national ranking was 1. Faith Christian 2. Bishop McCort ... 4) Wyoming Seminary. So 1st in their state was first in the country. Those three had split duals with Wyoming Seminary beating Faith Christian early in the season and losing to McCort later. Faith Christian then beat Bishop McCort to win the state dual title at the end of the season. So the picture might be a little unclear looking at duals, but there were also tournaments. McCort, Faith Christian, and Wyoming Seminary entered the same tournaments thought the year and Faith Christian won every tournament they entered. Bishop McCort outplaced Wyoming Seminary at every tournament the two of them entered. Wyoming Seminary is not in the PIAA so their end of season tournament was National Preps where they finished 3rd as a team. By the end of the season the pecking order was pretty clear with Bishop McCort #2 ahead of Wyoming Seminary and behind Faith Christian. I get the argument that McCort can't be number 1 all time because they were behind Faith Christian, but they were very close with Faith Christian who set a number of records - Most points ever at PIAAs (232.5), most PIAA champions in a season (4, tied with 8 teams), most PIAA place winners in a season (10 tied with 2004 Northampton). McCort was close with the 2nd most team points ever at PIAAs (218.5), the most PIAA champions in a season (4, tied with 8 teams), and 3rd most PIAA place winners in a season (9). 2025 Faith Christian had a big three that stacks up pretty well with all these historic teams we have been analyzing in terms of recruiting rankings. Joe Bachmann (#3 2027), Adam Waters (#7 2026), Nicholas Singer (#18 2027), Cael Weidemoyer (#57 2026), Mark Effendian (#58 2026), Gauge Botero (#68 2025), Jason Singer(#72 2026), Max Stein (#96 2025) Those rankings are from Flo who doesn't have a 2028 big board yet, but as someone else pointed out other services have Freddy Bachman #1 in the class of 2028. So last years Faith Christian could have 3 top 10s and 4 top 20s. Looking ahead to next season 3 of Faith Christian's PIAA place winners graduate whereas only 1 of Bishop McCort's is not returning, so it is possible the 2026 team wins PIAAs and the state dual title. It will be close again. The past historic teams discussed here did not always wrestle the top opponents and were not perfect. That 2005 Davison team finished 2nd at the Medina tournament where Metcalf famously beat Schlatter. The 2004 Davison team that also featured Paul Donahoe won Medina but only by ~4 team points and Medina wasn't the toughest tournament in the country that year.

Biden increased the deportations his last two years. Here is a chart showing removals each quarter. Q1 2021 was the last quarter of Trump's first term. The rest of them are Biden.