CHROMEBIRD

@bnwtwg deserves a bonus point for neat margins

Damn whippersnappers! Back in my day we wrestled on concrete in the snow, uphill in burlap singlets. The head coach was paid in clear broth soups. Chowder if anyone AAed.

I would love to see a Ferrari run into a Barr at Nationals

Y.. yes? Your upper extremities are your arms, starting from the shoulder joint. Anyway, it seems like Drake's left shoulder has been in rough shape for some time now. Maybe he's got the Kemdog special.

I think he disclocated his shoulder a few weeks ago, looked like he reinjured it in his last out against Michigan. I didn't think he'd finish the match.

Maybe Cannon should heal up so he's good for the postseason. He has not been looking great.

I'm not sure about AA, but dude will be a landmine in his bracket for sure

HEW? Maybe some dodgeball will help.

Also I am insulted that Mike Tyson's face was spliced-in over Mr. T!!

125 Lilledahl maj Cruz - Lil Luke comes off a loss with guns blazing in front of a home crowd. 4-0 PSU 133 Ayala maj Davis - Home cookin' won't save Davis, gets sloppy and Ayala turns him for backs. 4-4 141 Bartlett dec Rhodes - Rhodes will be way overmatched, but I think Bartlett will lowkey wrestle an even-keeled controlled match. 7-4 149 SVN dec Parco - Parco wrestles tight and doesn't take a shot, SVN wins the scrambles. 10-4 157 Teemer dec Kasak - Teemer's physicality will be a problem for Kasak and the refs will force action from Jacori since this won't be at CHA. Gas tank will be tested. 10-7 165 Mesenbrink maj Caliendo - I'd like to see Caliendo narrow the gap, but how do you even pull together a match strategy against Mes? MM wins on pace and blows it open in the third period. 14-7 174 Haines dec Kennedy - Rooting for PK, but Haines' style will give him problems. 17-7 184 Starocci dec Arnold - Gabe's explosiveness will be a non-factor and I expect more of an old school Kemerer-Starocci style grinder. 20-7 197 - Barr dec Buchanan - Barr wins this one by a takedown at BJC but Buchanan wins at Big Tens. 23-7 286 - Kerk dec Keuter - Expecting a snoozer, not that it will matter at this point. 26-7 PSU final TB: 184

Shoulder?

The most eye-opening part of this take is that APR still exists. I'm surprised the NCAA hasn't been sued yet, since that seems to be the way things go these days

You literally said: " if you don't want to come to Harvard to play FB or BB because you're not getting paid, guess what, someone will." - and I said yeah, kids are leaving the Ivy League in basketball. No idea about football. I also said that while opting-out won't have much effect on wrestling, it could have enough of an effect on FB/BB that the schools actually take a closer look at D3. Btw, even smart athletes in non-revenue sports can be swayed when the decision is paying their own way through an Ivy League school with no real NIL prospects vs. Stanford/Duke/Northwestern/Michigan/UVA/UCLA (etc) + athletic scholarship and even small NIL money.

That's what I'm saying - I love that the Ivies are putting what they have to offer against NIL cash. But the transfer portal and NIL deals chipping away at their model, like we see in basketball (Okpara, Mack, Wolf, etc.). And transfers have a disproportionate effect on Ivy league schools because so few are admitted and fewer students are allowed to transfer-in. So lost headcount in a class is pretty much gone. It's a small number now, but when kids without need-based financial assistance are presented with a choice between paying their own way through an Ivy League school vs. scholarship money and NIL deals elsewhere, even smart kids will be tempted to forego a payday. The individual NIL sponsorships Ivy League schools allow are minuscule compared to what the collectives have to offer.

Good on the Ivies for taking a principled stance. I don't think it'll affect wrestling much if at all. Recruitment, retention, and administration will be as tough as it has ever been for coaches in the Ivy environment. Maybe we'll see a very watered-down version of the "feeder school" trap that the revenue sports are worried about, with talented kids getting poached. I guess the bigger worry would be if opting-out could affect enough football and basketball players that it cascades down into other problems (lost enrollment, inability to find good coaches, and such) to the point that the Ivy League reclassifies to D3. Seems like there's been a low hum in the background for a while now about finding a better fit down in D3. The policies will definitely be more in-line with the Ivies' philosophy of academics and athletic governance.

Do you have any other examples? Seems like Gable, Cael, Brands (also John Smith) have/had good relationships with their ADs and schools because they win titles or are running wrestling programs with a storied history of success. And Stanford Athletics prioritizes Olympic sports and winning the Directors Cup, and Princeton and its peers have the whole Ivy Agreement thing so idk how much upward management was involved with Ayers.

I'm also having a hard time with Lacrosse being added in 2016 and not getting cut. How is it possibly more popular than wrestling in NE Ohio?

I think the current rule is based on competition dates rather than matches, so it would depend on how many days the athlete competes at national duals

"Sweep the one leg"

Maybe it's also market dynamics at work? Football, basketball, even soccer have pro leagues that pay well and draw big audiences. I'm not saying it's the only reason, or even right one since most athletes won't ever turn pro, but the "non-warrior mindset" sports you mentioned at least incentivize athletes and their families to put in their time and investment into those sports.

The food noise thing is pretty wild. Is the psychological effect the result of the drug curbing your appetite, or is your appetite curbed because the drug eliminates brain noise? Kind of a chicken and egg thing.

But NCAA wrestlers rep institutions; MMA fighters, boxers, PGA golfers do not. Or are you saying college wrestling should go completely individual? Selected wrestlers pulled onto a fight card instead of duals & team scoring + all open tournaments? I am trying to imagine that.

Agreed. A dual based championship is the most digestible postseason format. Casuals love watching their favorite teams advance through a bracket (or something very similar to it, like college baseball regionals to championship bracket, or soccer's group play to knockout bracket). They're not going to follow the team scoring at the individual NCAA tournament. I love the current championship format but wouldn't be mad if it was replaced with a dual tournament, which I think would be more exciting AND put much more weight into regular season duals. USAW could then make the US Open the marquee individual national wrestling event.

A lot of public universities have a tough time scraping by on the funding they have, esp when they don't have a huge endowment or financial administration to manage their investment funds. Sonoma State just cut 6 academic departments, 25 majors, and their entire athletics program today and they're D2/no football.

Looking forward to EV Battery Braedon