fishbane

I didn't think Binghamton held the Bearcat Open this year. If it didn't happen then I think that means there are no collegiate opens either in NY or any of the New England States. So they aren't all that accessible in the north east. That said there are a ton of opens in the mid Atlantic and Midwest. Many D3 schools even host them (Messiah, Wilkes, John Carroll, Luther, Wisconsin Stevens Point, Augsburg, Concordia, Wisconsin Eau-Claire, Averett, Grand View, Nebraska-Kearny, Lake Erie, Case Western) If any D3 schools hosts and open some D1 wrestlers will attend - mainly redshirts looking for matches. Conversely since there aren't redshirts looking matches in D3 (athletes are not permitted to even practice with the team in D3) they don't have individual wrestlers looking for them and the D1 coaches hosting them don't really try to get lower division teams. I'd say most lower division teams have at least one or two dates where they will encounter D1 redshirts or backups, but few put opens hosted by D1 schools on the calendar. A few do. John Carroll (D3) attended the Clarion Open as a team this year and did not do well. Most of their wrestlers went 0-2, though they aren't a top D3 team (unranked). TCNJ has the Princeton Open on their schedule and they are ranked #15 in D3. That should be more interesting. A D3 team needs to be pretty good (top 20? Top 10?) for a decent portion of the team to get something out of going to an early season D1 Open. For the exceptional individual on a lower division team testing yourself at opens can be hit or miss. You might go and the field could be relatively weak. Guys still skip early season events or default out of the later rounds. No one will really care if you win the Shorty Hitchcock Open unless you beat someone notable. The D2/D3/NAIA national title will be a bigger deal. You really have to go to one of the big holiday tournaments to see top competition and those are more invitational than opens. Often lower division champs get invites to Midlands. I don't think the Scuffle or Soldier Salute do that. The older Lackman brother (the one that won D3 NCAAs) wrestled at the Midlands last year and placed 6th. Even then the only match he was paired against a D1 AA was in the wrestle backs against Peyton Hall and Hall med forfeited and didn't wrestle. Lackman wasn't the only lower division wrestler at Midlands last year.

Mrs. Scott is from OK.

Commonly referred to as the hometown discount. Although Scott is from Western PA. I wouldn't discount the significance that it was John Smith doing the asking. I am sure if he phoned up every D1 head coach and offered them the opportunity to be his assistant/associate head over half would take it regardless of hometown or alma mater.

Going back to Scott's compensation at OSU it appears he has taken a pay cut. I think I've found him in the state of OK payroll data and it appears he is being paid $160k/year. The second line in this screenshot I believe to be him (C L Scott) which indicates he was paid $6666.67 Sept 29. Assuming he gets that amount twice per month that is $160k/year and slightly more than Esposito was receiving (see second screenshot with Esposito's pay for the same period last year), but below his $180k base at UNC.

I found an email in my spam folder regarding Young, et al. v. FloSports, Inc.., Case No. 2023LA000516 (In the Circuit Court of DuPage County, Illinois, 18th Judicial Circuit). It is related to Flo failing to properly disclose automatic renewal charges and cancellations terms. That's really not surprising as Flo won't even tell you how much the service costs until you enter an email and set up a password. That always seemed to be putting the cart in front of the horse to me. Anyway. Class members have until 1/25 to register or exclude themselves from the settlement at https://fsrenewalsettlement.com. I've copied the relevant portions of the email below "The Class Plaintiffs allege that they were enrolled in automatically renewing subscriptions for FloSports’ content without adequate disclosures and notice regarding renewal charges and cancellation terms. FloSports claims its subscription renewal practices complied with all applicable laws and regulations and that it fairly disclosed all terms associated with its subscriptions. Thus, FloSports denies all allegations of wrongdoing, and the Court has not determined who is right. Rather, the Parties have agreed to settle the lawsuit to avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with ongoing litigation." Am I a Class Member? Yes. Our records indicate you are a Settlement Class Member. Class Members are persons who, from August 29, 2018 throughSeptember 29, 2023, enrolled in an automatically renewing FloSports subscription using a California, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Florida, Illinois, Washington D.C., North Dakota, Virginia, Hawaii, Vermont billing address and paid fee(s) in connection with such subscription. What Can I Get? You must submit a Claim Form (see instructions below) to receive a benefit from this Settlement. Class Members with active subscriptions to FloSports may choose to receive either (1) a pro rata cash payment of up to $30.00 for annual subscribers, and up to $6 for monthly subscribers via check; or (2) a 10% discount on the next immediate FloSports renewal charge (or an electronic voucher for a free pay-per-view event from FloSports, with certain exceptions, if your membership is no longer active when the settlement becomes final). If you are an inactive subscriber to FloSports, you may choose to receive either (1) a pro rata cash payment of up to $30.00 for annual subscribers, and up to $6 for monthly subscribers via check; or (2) an electronic voucher for a free pay-per-view event from FloSports, with certain exceptions.

I think many were already doing that. In Johnson's charging document they said the account was his mother's. I believed it was linked to him by the phone/gps position. Bets were being placed from non-public locations in the ISU athletic facilities.

It's not like Smith didn't have domestic competition either. We had world champs before (Lewis) and after him (Brands) at his weight and he beat them.

1988 Olympic gold medalist Sarkisian was in that event. It's not like everyone took the year off. That kind of odd finalist can happen especially before they started seeding the brackets. In 2012 Jake Herbert was in a crazy unbalanced 84kg bracket. The bracket was won by Sharifov over Espinal in the final. Espinal's side of the bracket featured a single wrestler (Marsagishvili) that won a single medal (bronze 2011) at another Olympic/world championships.

The Washington Post had an in-depth feature on Jim Jordan that was published a couple weeks ago just after his bid for speaker was derailed in that secret ballot. I found it pretty interesting and gave some insight to him as a wrestler and the Strauss scandal. I've linked to it below. If you don't have a Post subscription you can dodge the paywall by changing to reader view if your browser supports that. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/jim-jordan/

Yes, I think the weight class reduction has added difficulty for the modern guys especially before the expansion of worlds, and for those competing at Olympic weights. I am not sure it effects Baumgartner's accomplishments as much as others. In 1996 the top weights were 90, 100, and 130kg. It then went to 87, 97, and 130kg, then 84, 96, and 120, then 86, 97, and 125kg, and now 92, 97, and 125kg in non-olympic years. I don't know that any of that moves the needle and makes soon set of weights significantly more competitive at 130/120/125kg. Would adding 3-4 kg to the second biggest weight make the top weight less competitive? If so dropping 5-10kg from the top end would make its less competitive. To me the reduction in weight classes is more of talking point in figuring out where Smith, Kemp, Jackson, and the Shultzes rank than Big Bruce.

It wasn't me that you were responding to, but I don't see this as docking for losses at the end of an amazing career. It's more of an accumulation off accolades that leads some to prefer Baumgartner, Schultz, or Snyder. I'll take an example from baseball to illustrate Mickey Mantle and Henry Aaron. Mantle was a part of 7 World Championship teams, won 3 AL MVP awards, and lead the AL in WAR 6 times over an 18 year career. Aaron, who was 2 years younger than Mantle, was on 1 World Series winning team, won 1 NL MVP, and lead the NL in WAR twice over a 23 year career. If you are picking teams and 1957 Mantle and any version of Aaron are available the choice is obvious - Mantle was better in 1957. Mantle was better than Aaron's best season a handful and times. He had a higher peak and was better on a per game average over his career. Despite this I think Aaron is almost universally ranked above Mantle in lists of greatest baseball players of all time. His high level of play and longevity resulted in him retiring holding the MLB records in many counting stats including games, AB, HR, RBI, extra base hits, and total bases. He also retired with the second most hits in history. In wrestling and combat sports in general it is more of an all or nothing proposition. A Hank Aaron type wouldn't get the same recognition. Being in the top 5-10 in the world consistently over a 20 year period doesn't matter as much as winning a handful of titles.

No idear. Longest medal streaks - I think 1) Snyder 9 (2015-2023) 2) Baumgartner 8 (1983-1990) 3) John Smith 6 (1987-1992) 3) Dave Schultz 6 (1982-1987) 3) Kyle Dake 6 (2018-2023) 6) Bruce Baumgartner 5 (1992-1996) 6) Jordan Burroughs 5 (2011-2015) (2017-2022?) 6) Bill Scherr 5 (1985-1989)

Antonio McKee? Legend says it happened in 1989 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lIKip3hpxA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoIM_vm4Du4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJKwmBrPHSY

The logic being used to select the repechage wrestlers isn't that they proved anything, but rather that it has been proven that there are at least two wrestlers better than the wrestlers not in the repechage - the wrestler they lost to and whoever ultimately defeated that guy. The repechage does a not awful job at determining the second best wrestler in that half off the bracket or at least that's the logic The guy who loses in the first round to the finalist does get a free pass to the repechage, but he also has to wrestle 1-2 matches whilst the semi-final loser is waiting - its not easy, so that may help account for the poor record. However in a way making him wrestling 2-3 matches in a row balances the fact that he only wrestled 1 and the semifinal loser wrestled 2-3 the day before. They all need to win the same number of matches too finish 3rd. Probably the fact that they now seed the wrestlers is a bigger factor. Yazdani's repechage performance in 2018 was pretty remarkable. After losing to Taylor in the first round he won three straight matches beating Taylors opponents by a wider margin that Taylor did to finish 3rd. It is far better than most other olympic combat sports which just give bronze medals to the semifinalists

He would have needed a major to tie the dual. During the season in question, 1996-97, I think there were ties in duals, but this was for the NWCA National duals championships, so presumably some tie breaking criteria would have come into play. I can't imagine they would just share the title. I have no idea what the tie breaking criteria was for the event, but applying the current criteria to the dual would favor OSU. Assuming McIlravy majored Arias the teams would be tied in team points (17-17), first criteria - match victories (5-5), and second criteria - # of Pins, forfeits, DQ, defaults (0-0). The third criteria, total match points from Dec, MD, and TF would likely settle things. In the 9 other matches OSU held an edge in total match points 53-36. It would be impossible for McIlravy to close the match point gap via a MD. He would need an edge of 17 points which would be a TF and then the team score wouldn't be tied. Maybe if the 4 point TF was a thing in 1997 he could have won by 17 with the team score tied and the total match points tied. Even in that highly unlikely outcome (how do you get a 17 point advantage w/o NF?) OSU would likely just win on the 4th criteria - total NF points. OSU had a 4-1 NF advantage in the dual and I doubt Arias accounted for 3 of those. For McIlravy to change the outcome of the dual he would need at least a 5 point TF over Arias. Keep in mind that McIlravy was not wrestling for a reason (concussion symptoms) which makes a TF less likely. Also where the bout would have been wrestled in the dual could have come into play. At the 150lb bout OSU was up, but they had not yet scored any bonus points. It would not have been clear that a TF was going to be the difference in the dual so McIlravy may not have had felt the urgency to get it.

There weren't actually that many changes from the dual. Really only two. Guerrero, Reyna, Branch, and Smith all outplayed their Iowa counterparts at NCAAs. The big change was, as you said, McIlravy missing the dual. Still he would have had to not only win but win and get 1 bonus for a tie or two bonus to win outright. Arias was a decent wrestler and entered NCAAs that year as the 10 seed. Two plus bonus points was a possibility, but also might not have happened. The other change was at 118 where Moore beat Whitmer in the dual and Whitmer reversed the result in the NCAA semifinal. This was famously Whitmer's senior season and only season as a starter for the Hawkeyes. Moore entered NCAAs as the 2 seed and would win it next season. The 1 seed, Morgan, was upset before the final. OSU was really good that season. They scored 113.5 team points - that's enough too win many years. If there was a team that good this season this wouldn't really be a discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYO75V3DD00

Dake and Tsargush have wrestled before. I think this match was won by Dake.

Yes! 1997 Iowa was 2x better than Minnesota at NCAAs. He was correct that they were only 50% better than runner up OSU at NCAAs. This was quite the turnaround from a few months earlier at when OSU was 60% better at NWCA National Duals.

This is true. Mesenbrink isn't on the rankings for PSU either. Olympic redshirts aren't fully accounted for yet either.

Is a spot at the Olympic trials on offer at Bill Farrell?

True, but a little misleading. Ithaca College won D3 NCAAs either that year or within a year of that, so they were really good for a D3 team. Cornell probably had a pretty similar stature in wrestling when Koll took over to that of present day UNC. Koll took over a Cornell team that was 10th at NCAAs and had a 3 AAs the year before. Koll takes over a UNC team that finished 12th with 3AAs the year prior.

I'm sure some would have said the same thing about Cornell.

Not all 3 game suspensions are created equal and neither are all 1 year suspensions. I recall when Jordan Oliver first failed a drug test at the US Open. It was literally the worst possible timing for a 1 year ban. Not only did he miss the trials that year, but he was banned for the entire qualifying process the next year. This effectively made is a 2 year ban from trying to make the team. In that instance the ban was tied to the failed test. With on going gambling activities it's a little less clear when the ban should start. First gambling activity? Last bet? Since Brands started gambling in September 2022 and not knowing the exact penalty (1 year? 2 year? permanent ban?), he is possibly fortunate he was able to compete in the post season this past season.

Zero reason? That’s clearly not true. Many reasons have been given you have either ignored them or disagree with them. A football player’s girlfriend wouldn’t have the same access to team facilities as another athlete. She also isn’t representing the athletic department the same was as an employee/athlete. This is similar to a normal student. If the basketball team is betting against the football team it could cause the public to question if the team is trying to win or whether there are shenanigans afoot. It definitely reflects poorly on the athletic department. If there is no fixing or inside information involved and the basketball team just thinks the football team is bad, it is still negative for the university. It casts a shadow on the efforts of the football team and their integrity when they did nothing wrong and are simply not that good at football. You could spoint out that a handful of football players girlfriends betting against the team could do the same thing. I would agree that is true and the school/NCAA should investigate. I would also say that if a football player has a girlfriend that is betting against his team he should dump her. Just like the school should dump athletes that wager on their school. We have seen some unusual behavior spurred on by sports betting since it became widespread. This year there was a fan who yelled out during Mardy Fish’s backswing because he had bet on Steph Curry to win. Fans with a betting interest have done this multiple times in professional golf tournaments this year. I think it not wanting anyone within the athletic department to have a financial interest in football team losing is a compelling reason to ban betting on the schools sports or any NCAA sport sponsored by the school, because you dont want to incentivize bad behavior. To me there is no reason to allow it. The NCAA certainly has the right to ban conduct that, whilst not illegal, could negatively affect the institution and allowing athletes and athletic department staff to wager on their own school has no upside. None at all. It can only bring disrepute and cause the public to question whether the integrity of the game is being upheld.