CHROMEBIRD

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:

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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.

What's the verdict on Baylor Fernandes? Dude who you'd want to avoid in a street fight, or dude who needs to get in a street fight?

Thing about Starocci is that he has a special kind of crazy. The kind where he'd throw down in a street fight and hold a steady grudge against you and everyone you know until he felt like you were sufficiently pulverized. Gilman strikes me as another type like that, but he's a shrimp and is nowhere near the level of crazy/scary as Starocci.

Read the entire post, genius.

Scholarships are what they are, but it will be more interesting (horrifying) to see how NIL deals shape the resources and priorities of Athletic Departments. In the recent past, departments and coaches poured a ton of money into recruiting, facilities, and resources for athletes but now NIL is (mostly) the only game in town. Maryland's head football coach had some eye-opening takes recently. Says that time and money spent on the recruiting trail doesn't matter anymore, that the school's new training facility dedicated for football doesn't matter: I feel like I’ve got my legs cut from underneath me. Because my strength in recruiting isn’t some slick salesman job, it’s built on the longevity of relationships. And now the way the college landscape is with the NIL, the transfer portal — everything is pretty much transactional, and relationships have kind of gone out of the window. Locksley’s team moved into a brand-new, $149 million football-only facility, just last year. The Jones-Hill House is beautiful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter. The role that it plays in recruiting is minimal in contrast to NIL. Locksley will be the first to say so and he did not hold back: "Unfortunately, we moved in at a time when facilities have been de-emphasized in a recruit’s mind. Because they’d get dressed in the trash can for $25,000." We are already seeing this trickle down into wrestling as the effects of NIL continue unfold, but it will be wild to see those alumni emails change from "support our capital campaign for a new arena" to "give us money so we can make more NIL deals"

I agree, it was a number salad without any clear insights or takeaways. It looked like the data was awkwardly jammed randomly into the article just for the sake of having some stats in there. Looking at the paragraph, my own read is: A riding time point was scored in about half the matches at Nationals = RT is scored frequently enough... Of those matches with RT, the added point was a determining factor in fewer than 1 in 10 (7%) of them = ... but RT usually doesn't make a difference either way in who wins a match... Of those 7% of matches where RT was a factor, the bottom man didn't get turned = ... and when RT matters, the top wrestler just sat on top and won (or sent the match into OT) I think the author was trying to say, in a very convoluted way, that a turning point rule would complicate the rules while only affecting a very small # of matches? But that reasoning is flawed, because with a turning point rule, RT could have been a determining factor in more than 7% of the matches (the data doesn't indicate either way) AND a subset of those matches (again, the data doesn't indicate what proportion) where RT mattered would have gone into OT, so longer matches.

Yeah. PK can't get his name into the transfer portal since the deadline has passed. He'll have to wait until 2024 or lose a year of eligibility if he transfers. Also if PK's name was in the portal before the deadline, he risks Iowa/Brands reducing or revoking his scholarship if he ends up staying.

Thanks for this. I misread his UFC grappling announcement and thought he was going at Featherweight, not Flyweight next week. So I thought he was moving up for freestyle rather than cutting.

It would be pretty wild if RBY doesn't qualify the weight for MX. Assuming he's more likely a 65er than 57, even Pan Ams could be tough with Vito/Nick Lee/Yianni, Rivera, Valdes Tobier, Destribats...

R.. re... ver... sals?