CHROMEBIRD

Good for Koll, I guess. Pretty rough news for Stanford whose athletics is already in a tough situation, and for Tony Ramos who I wanted to see run the program.

Didn't Cris Cyborg almost die a couple of times from cutting weight? I don't keep up with MMA but remember the discussions on the old board about fighters making dangerous cuts in the UFC. I am curious if they have made any changes to their weight management rules & procedures.

Interesting. I stress starve when I'm stressed or anxious, too. Just caffeine, water, and some sugar like I have to make weight in a couple of days. I wonder if it's a common thing that a lot of former wrestlers do.

141 might be fun, too. Was Echemendia's court case dropped?

What's the story? What do you all think? Does this mean the free/VPN streams will be gone?

Who qualified? I thought someone here mentioned that Russia had its own championship tournament this year.

Let Ramos run with it.

Didn't one of the upstart freestyle wrestling leagues back in the day schedule exhibition matches at NBA games during halftime? Disclaimer, I might have hallucinated this

I'm down for whatever structure but at the end of the day it comes down to money and sponsorships. I thought AGON was an interesting concept and want to believe that it (and GCW and Realpro and others) were ahead of its time before streaming became ubiquitous and possible to develop an audience. Building off the RTC model here would be a nice way to kick start something without having to start from scratch. How do the pro leagues in India and elsewhere work? I remember some of our MFS/WFS won contracts to compete for a season but don't remember why we don't hear much about it anymore.

Found the midget

Maybe they'll merge with the Western Athletic Conference and become the PACWAC. Adding UVU and Cal Baptist to the Pac might be good... maybe get GCU to restart wrestling!

Stanford and Arizona. ASU does not have an AAU distinction.

The speculation is that Washington and Oregon would be an all-or-nothing deal for the Big Ten; either they get both schools, or none. The Big Ten member vote last month denying both schools was for full shares of the media split. Now, they are tossing around the idea of offering UW and UO partial shares. It will still dilute payouts to each school while incurring much higher travel costs, so it's hardly a done deal. USC and UCLA may also move to block the expansion, as the implication of joining the Big Ten was that they'd own recruiting out West. UW and UO would eat into that. Cal and Stanford would be non-starters. Keep in mind that the Pacific Northwest and Bay media markets are still pretty small compared to what USC and UCLA bring to the table. Many speculated even before Colorado left that the four corner schools would bolt for the Big12. For some reason Utah has been holding strong on staying in the Pac12. I think part of the concern is that moving conferences won't resolve gripes from Pac fans about watching games: in the Pac, they all start late and don't get any viewership East of the Rockies; in the Big12, start times could happen while fans out West are still at work. Plus, it isn't exactly easy for fans to travel to the Big12 cities. If the Pac12's AppleTV deal falls short of expectations, I can see the Arizona schools leaving for the Big12 anyway. UA and ASU are also an all-or-nothing deal (AZ BOR won't split the schools) and that might make things easier, as neither school wants to be the one who puts the final dagger into the Pac12. I wonder what Koll is thinking about ASU possibly wrestling in the Big12.

These are good observations. That volume of sports betting could signal a serious gambling problem. Hopefully they weren't all Johnson's betting on the falsified account. But what @TylerDurden says about the betting sites and apps making it frictionless and easy is 100% correct. Guy I know lost everything from online sports betting because it fed into his compulsions and he fell into a downward spiral. I was looking forward to seeing Paniro compete this season, but the optics does not look good with him covering up his identity on the app. Sorting through the layers will be tough. In addition to the potential legal infractions and NCAA violations, ISU and Dresser will be compelled to act also.

Death by Martin's knee? (a Flo Arena Knee)

Let me help you out with this RBY-to-human emotions cheat sheet:

...

This idea has been proposed several times on the old forum. If I remember correctly, the biggest pushback is that it's not enough of an incentive to change anything. Wrestlers want their team to win, but ultimately dual/team results are a far lower priority compared with individual results and the team race at Nationals. It's hard to get wrestlers to care under the current system when DDM.

I believe the UWW has been pushing for Women's Beach Wrestling in 2028 to preserve Greco. So there would be gender equity in the sport with MFS + GR for men and WFS + WB for women at 6 weight classess apiece. Women's Grappling could be another possibility since Jiu-Jitsu is on the 2024 program. I just don't have a feel for how big the sport or participation is relative to Women's Beach Wrestling, but if Jiu-Jitsu takes off in Paris there might be a pathway to Women's Grappling, slim as it may be.

MicMoc wasn't playing around in that finals match. Brutality on full display.

There are a number of eligibility exceptions for military, but I think that's if someone transfers or pauses their education to serve. Seems like it would be pretty tough to balance the demands of active duty military, a full courseload, and an NCAA sport (esp wrestling). If they are doing it more for leisure than competitive sport, maybe a club or intramurals would work out better? There are lots of opportunities to compete nationally in some college club sports like Greco, boxing, rugby, etc. without the NCAA's eligibility requirements.

It would be fun to see finals in/on The Sphere.

*Easier to make weight

Wrestling is set for Paris. The IOC won't have LA/2028 program finalized until Dec 2024, but I don't know if the sport is at risk for the chopping block again. It definitely caught everyone off-guard last time, but wasn't there a bit of a scandal with rich and influential members of the IOC cutting wrestling in favor of Modern Pentahlon (since dropped) and other pet projects? Whatever the case I'm all for more media exposure for wrestling, be it through Hollywood or tech/streaming.

The Pac-12 has its mens basketball tournament at the T-Mobile arena every year, around the time of Nationals. While I would love to see NCAAs in (or on) the sphere, I'm not holding my breath.