CHROMEBIRD

The 'flap is alive and well in these parts. I think he's more of a Busch guy, though. Switched from Olympia.

I hope neither guy holds back with the emojis

I like his chances better at 125. 133 will be a lil thicc with talent next season

Is there even any bad blood between Cael and DT? It's easy to jump to conclusions from his non-answers about Ok State but I think Cael just doesn't care or spend much time thinking about Taylor, the same way he doesn't seem to give a shiit about anyone or anything and just focuses on PSU

It's addition by omission and would be subtraction by addition. Iowa will be fine.

Also say that you have some juicy insider information about a recruit but can't reveal what it is yet. And make vague open-ended statements that can be interpreted in several ways, so you'll never be wrong. The worst offenders of this are college basketball recruiting "experts" on social media. Drives me nuts.

What's your go-to shoe? I took up trail running when the pandemic hit and have been enjoying it, but my knees get pretty torqued sometimes. Part of it might be because I don't like high stack foamy shoes (like Ons) even though I'm a heavy heel striker. My wife, a pavement runner, swears by her Vaporflies and says I should give them a try but one of my buddies thinks they're overrated and will shame anyone who wears them. lol

NCAA has a 14 sport minimum for D1, but it's not difficult to imagine that rule going away. I also have a hard time seeing the numbers work out for anyone outside of the SEC and B1G, but that's probably why deals are being made with institutional investors. Those programs or conferences will get some money in the near-term but imo just slightly delays the demise of non-revenue sports.

That is damn impressive. I don't think I know any former bigs who became marathon runners. How has it been on your knees after wrestling?

Not all businesses are national brands. A lot of NIL sponsorships, esp in non-revenue sports, are smaller deals from regional businesses that rely on a player being with the local area team. There have been stories of sponsors complaining about players hitting the portal too quickly, like the basketball player in Utah(?) who did a tv ad for a wellness resort in his team's jersey and then transferring before it aired.

We all know exactly what the recruiting pitch was like: Koll: AJ, we'd love to you have you on board here at UNC AJ: UNC? Where's that? Koll: It's in North Carolina. Chapel H-- AJ: SOLD! Praise Jesus!

I figured maybe he thought he'd be more successful outside of the Ivy League's athletic ruleset, and was likely particularly frustrated because it was when the Covid pandemic was underway. IIRC, he took the Stanford job right after the school cut wrestling. Fundraising and keeping the program going was probably a huge distraction, plus the Pac-12 was dissolving and he had an opportunity to coach at his alma mater. The circumstances were all pretty compelling and I don't think he has plans to bounce around further

I'd take the B1G field over AJ. He wouldn't have won 197 this year.

That's too bad. I could see Zeke enjoying coaching without all the wild west NIL stuff if he focused fully on Atreus. It would be a fun project for him too, building something more or less from the ground up. I'm still skeptical that ASU would bring in a prestige head coach to replace him on the college side, though. It would be such a great opportunity out west for any talented prospect, but I don't believe the program has the appetite for it.

Seems like 74 had been a rough cut for Dake for some time now. He did all right when he dipped his toes in at 86 for a little while and at this stage of his career, why not give it a go? I can't imagine being in your mid-30s and sucking down 1-2 international weight classes being very pleasant.

Is he buddies with RBY? idk

That sentence just made my head explode

119, 130/135, 145/152, 145; 158, 167

Forgot to include a link earlier, re: advantages of schools without football opting-in: https://usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2025/03/19/ncaa-tournament-revenue-sharing-basketball-only-compete-football/82539403007/

The conversation will have legs among wrestling fans, but does anyone who matters to ASU athletics care either way? Volleyball gets more attention in Tempe than wrestling, and swimming/diving has gotten traction since their men's and women's teams both won the Big 12. Robles could probably draw more attention and funding to ASU wrestling, with the momentum he has from his book and movie, but it looks like he's more focused on his self-motivation stuff and maybe wrestling in general rather than his alma mater. Not saying that's a bad thign.

Does that mean a booster or group of boosters could pick up the tab on buying Zeke & his staff out and hiring a new coach? I agree that Zeke has it pretty good at ASU. When Figs won Nationals last year, and Zahid not too long before that, those were NCAA titles that the department could hang their hat on. I'm not sure how or why anyone at ASU would have high expectations for ASU wrestling. They should keep Zeke around, I think just a change in assistant coaches could turn things around.

Yeah, not having football is a huge savings for a program, even without the inflow of football revenue. It's also a great pull for basketball (and other sports) coaches to not have to play second, third, or xth fiddle to football. Bill Self is basically a king at KU with a lifetime contract, but has mentioned that he's tired of Kansas' crummy football team being the AD's top priority. It's estimated that the non-football schools that opt-in will spend between 90-95% of their revenue sharing budget on basketball though, so that still leaves wrestling with a pittance. I also don't know how the numbers will work out for mid-major programs like Davidson, Marquette, or even Gonzaga who have small athletic departments without the staff or knowledge to administer athlete's NIL deals, payroll, and all the tasks of a professional sports enterprise, which is what they'd essentially become. They also compete in conferences that get few postseason opportunities, are frequently poached by bigger programs, and haven't had much luck against the power conferences lately. This year's March Madness had zero Cinderella teams after the first weekend of the tournament, and the Final Four were all 1-seeds (Elite Eight was 1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2, 1 vs.3).

The way Pyles glitched

Details? IIRC, Zeke just has a year or two left on his contract and Rossini likes him. It wouldn't be the biggest buyout, but ASU's athletic department is already a little strapped for cash because of their new WBB coach and arena renovations. The AD was also under a lot of donor/fan pressure to give Bobby Hurley the boot this season, but they just couldn't afford to. I don't think ASU can afford, nor are they interested in bringing in a better wrestling coach. My guess is that Rossini will restructure Zeke's contract with more performance-based incentives when it's time to discuss an extension, like he's doing with Hurley. A possible complicating factor is that Rossini's contract is up for renewal soon, and ASU is proposing a salary bump for him from $650K to $950K with $100K/year annual increases (up from $50K currently), not including performance bonuses. I think the new WBB coach's contract still needs approval by the Board of Regents, a little less than $1M/year, somewhere around that ballpark.

P4 also proposed a carve-out so that a third-party entity (an LLC that they create and control) will administer the rules, limits, reporting, and investigations around payments to athletes, including NIL collectives. Probably their way of getting in front of Baker's Project D1 and proposing their own governance model if/when a new NCAA subdivision is created.