wrestle87

I'm still seeing a lot of discussion elsewhere about why people are mad at all the transfers, and something occurred to me about why I get worried about high reliance on transfers. Transfers are good, but they also have a way of hollowing out a program. It turns into a revolving door of just purchasing wrestlers, as opposed to actually recruiting and developing. It never really occurred to me until earlier today, transfers aren't anything new, and I don't recoil at the concept of early-career transfers, but I do recoil at the concept of filling a roster with late stage transfers who have limited eligibility left, because I worry about the innate ability for the Iowa program to sustain itself and develop nationally competitive wrestlers. There are certain stalwart programs that are a bellwether of health of the sport overall, and Iowa running on transfers to me looks like the wheels starting to wobble because in-house development isn't going well. Ultimately, our sport is one that runs on healthy, competitive rooms. Reliance on transfers feels like an NFL lineman just pounding Toradol ignoring issues that are cropping up. The bill comes due eventually, just a matter of when you pay it, and how large it is.

No idea, just a reflex I have when I hear that somebody has moved to Michigan/Cliff Keen, they must have access to another passport somehow.

I just assumed that bc Woods went to Cliff Keen that he would be going the "mercenary" root and competing for another country this next cycle. And honestly, good for him, the US system I would say is #2 behind the russian system in terms of being an absolute meat grinder for making the team. If he can sidestep that, make some teams AND be relatively healthy, more power to him.

Would be fascinating, but that’s gotta be close to the big dinner in Godfather Part I at this point. I’d be extra impressed if Nolf knows the story to the split. It’s out there on the internet somewhere I’m sure, but that is a loooong row to hoe. Let’s just say that the OG DDS wasn’t exactly a Glory to God type of environment.

Thanks for listening @Husker_Du. Ads seem to kind of overwhelm the new mobile browser setup, at least for Safari. I have had a pages reload themselves on me a few times while typing out posts. The frequency of them in scrolling setups is also between doubled and tripled, and some encroach on the columns of the web page in a pulsing fashion. At times it’s a lot of moving parts for the eyes to take in.

This right here, what @Interviewed_at_Weehawken said is spot on. Colleges, Universities, and the NCAA asymmetrically benefitted from a contrived moniker of "amateur" for many decades, using this to pretend that the education they weren't giving their athletes was actually worth something. That entire era was hot garbage for athletes. Schools could and did behave any way they wanted towards their athletes. Administrators weren't and still aren't held to any moral standards or codes, they just get paid to keep the money machine running. Being an AD is really an in-house tv negotiations and PR exec position at the big schools. Maurice Clarett is a perfect example. He didn't play ball with the Ohio State AD, got railroaded out of a very lucrative career bc he wouldn't kiss the ring. Kids are finally getting what they are worth in the market, and institutions which have done everything in their power to arrange asymmetric agreements with everyone they do business with throughout history (hello student loans being resilient to bankruptcy) are just salty they have lost hold of power they once had. TV and the NCAA did a great snow job on us, and yes old school games and matches were fun to watch, but let's not pretend that just bc we like watching college sports that it was any sort of fair and equitable arrangement for the athletes. Our enjoyment and pleasure on saturday evenings in front of the television came at the expense of thousands of young people's health and futures. NIL, while different, does right by the people creating the entertainment product and putting their bodies and their health on the line. That is 100% the way it should be.

I’d like to bid you all a great year and a great farewell, so long as this format keeps up I’m gone. This is practically giving me a seizure just looking at the screen. My brain feels so scrambled looking at this. @Husker_Du I hope this let’s you buy a nice house, bc this is too rough for my dainty eyes. In the meantime, bye everybody.

Yeah he definitely did, there are a lot of trends that make it an uphill battle for grad-transfers, training age chief amongst them. That is one thing folkstyle has going against it, it wears you out so hard. Not that the other styles don’t but, the as an athlete the folkstyle college season always felt like it was three years long. Was his 6th year the year that Gabe decamped and just left wrestling entirely, or did that happen as soon as they left Cornell?

I have noticed this in a big way too. There seems to really be an adjustment period to being in that room for some guys. Probably bc transfers are used to being the big dog in the room and show up and just get wrecked their first year. Reassembling the ego takes two years for most. DT and Bo both talked about how rough redshirt year was.

Re the Iowa culture, the departure of Zach Glazier should say everything. Dude was the soul and resident exorcist of the Hawkeyes last year, and is putting on his south dakota shoes after his coaches recruited over top of him for his final year of eligibility. Glazier is the epitomé of an in house program guy. How are the Brands any different from Jerry Jones at this point? I’m curious to know now, what is the going rate per win at NCAA’s nowadays? How much can wrestlers make per team point earned?

T&T are not creative enough thinkers to compete with the top guys. We’ve rehashed this a few times, but they are the last holdover from a previous era. The Iowa brand has only ever been Gable, T&T have their positions bc they remind people of Gable, and the support they receive comes from keeping those memories alive. The sport is not what it was, training definitely is not what it was, and I would hope that Iowa would be daring enough in another 5-10 years to make a move similar to what Okie State did, completely wiping the slate clean and starting a new era and a new dynasty. We are just in the second Gable post-script era. Now, in T&T’s defense, they have a top 3 domestic brand at their fingertips, and rightfully so, the Iowa room certainly isn’t a bad one. We can reference prime’s interview about barely taking high schoolers anymore. Points towards the top always help. But until they put that development piece back in (they are 20 years behind on technique development), they won’t close the gap.

Lol sorry, I shouldn’t type while sleep-deprived.

This is a fascinating knock-on effect.

Realistically, should read “CSU the next program to sell its soul at the alter of a head coach’s ego”

This is my favorite comment in a very long time...

At least in wrestling. He may very well be working towards the MMA route.

Well, he's an exceedingly good grappler, ADCC finalist, hair away from tapping gordon ryan (his old training partner), but he's also hands down the biggest social media name in jiu jitsu because of his tireless Australian sense of humor. He effectively comes from the Jiu Jitsu version of the Dan Gable Hawkeyes, but he didn't forget how to laugh and poke fun at people, jiu jitsu, and himself.

Yes, $10,001 to be precise. ADCC gives champs $10K, so Craig decided to give all entrants $10,001 to be able to say “you’ll earn more just by stepping on the mat here than you will if you win the whole thing over there.” CJI was just a well funded and very successful grass roots assault on a rigid monopoly, and really just Craig (and now everyone) flipping the bird at ADCC.

Also in this edition, "people in the know" announce that water is lighter than air, eating more food helps you lose weight, and humans don't need oxygen to breathe.

Everything on here, plus 50% of all greco calls, just coin flip who do we feel like we want to win this match. Totally arbitrary.

I am so envious, you are about to go on a journey. For starters look up the Danaher Death Squad, B-team Jiu Jitsu, and then look up who craig jones is.

Kerk predictably did nothing. Pat Downey actually had some pretty good outings. I really like the way they arrange criteria, with creating action as the only criteria for being awarded the round. It really makes this style much more forward moving wrestle-jitsu, takes all the boring edges out of jiu jitsu, 300% improvement over the way things have been done. I would not be surprised to see this ruleset really catching on.

I did not realize they scheduled this for the exact same weekend as ADCC’s (this weekend). Having watched the entire CJI first day on youtube for free, the product is WAY more interesting than scored no-gi. In an ideal world, they influence the UFC to start releasing scores round by round this way. Makes for a WAY more entertaining match progression. That plus the pit style is a tremendous idea for managing the boundaries. This has been very successful so far.

There's a million dollar prize to win, and you get $10K just for stepping on the mats. It's an easy, rather lucrative day for both of them. Also, keep in mind they will be employing the same skillset as one of craig jones' main training partners. Wrestling and the ability to control top position will definitely be given weight.

Great point