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125 LB SEASON PREVIEW

With the 2021-2022 NCAA Division 1 wrestling season approaching come November I think it’s a great time to look forward to what can happen come March.

Today we will start with 125 lbs and work our way all the way to heavyweight.

A little *disclaimer* before we start. This is for what I think will happen now with the guys who are on the current roster. So, because Nick Suriano is not on a roster yet, he will not be included in this preview. I am not going to predict where a guy will go or how good they will be if I do not know that they will actually wrestle this year due to them not being on a roster yet. Obviously Nick Suriano, if he wrestles will be an All-American but I’m previewing guys on current rosters.

So lets start off with conference champions predictions

  • Big Ten – Spencer Lee (Iowa)
  • Big 12 – Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley)
  • ACC – Sam Latona (Viginia Tech)
  • PAC-12 – Brandon Courtney (Arizona St)
  • EIWA – Vito Arujua (Cornell)
  • MAC – Drew Hildebrandt (Central Michigan)
  • SoCon – Fabian Gutierrez (Chattanooga)

Now All-American predictions

  1. Spencer Lee (Iowa)
  2. Vito Arujua (Cornell)
  3. Brandon Courtney (Arizona St.)
  4. Devin Schroeder (Purdue)
  5. Pat Glory (Princeton)
  6. Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley St.)
  7. Sam Latona (Va. Tech)
  8. Killian Cardinale (WVU)

Round of 12

  • Brody Teske (Northern Iowa)
  • Drew Hildebrandt (C. Michigan)
  • Jakob Camacho (NC State)
  • Robert Howard (PSU)

Any surprises? Let me explain myself.

Spencer Lee

Lee is by far the best wrestler we will see going into the 2021-2022 season and he is most likely the top 57 KG wrestler on the planet. Only if it wasn’t for his lack of ACL’s. Yeah you read that right, lack of ACL’s. If you do not remember after Lee won his third NCAA title against Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney, in his post match interview he shocked the wrestling community by stating “I’m wrestling with no ACLs” -Lee. With a whole summer to relax and get healthy I expect Lee to return and dominate the weight once again cementing himself as a 4-time NCAA champion. He has tough competition, by most standards but this is Spencer Lee we are talking about. Baring any surprise cradles or Sebastian Rivera cutting 20lbs, I think Lee will be the clear favorite.

Round of 12

Oh the blood round, anyone who has been to a NCAA Wrestling Championship in person knows that this round can be more exciting than the Semi-Finals happening at the same time. Drama, desperation, aspiration, all tie in to excitement and 125 lbs might offer some of the best matches. So let me set it all up with the possible matchups:

  • Brody Teske vs Devin Schroeder
  • Jakob Camacho vs Taylor LaMont
  • Robert Howard vs Sam Latona
  • Drew Hildebrandt vs Killian Cardinale

Now seeding can blow this all up, we are speaking in hypotheticals of course and March always brings in the surprise 23 seed in the third place match but lets just imagine this happens because I do believe these are the top 12 guys. Robert Howard I think takes a step up from last year and puts himself in a top 12 seed and could make it to the Quarters but wont go past that in the Championship bracket. He falls to Sam Latona which could be the match of the weight. I give the edge to Latona. Teske vs Schroeder is a match that could be fire works. Teske will probably get hurt with seeding especially with the Ivy’s back in the fold. This puts him in a position that he will have tough matches early and lose early. Schroeder will fall to him in the Quarters but this is his year and he wont be denied. Hildebrandt vs Cardinale is interesting. Not the best two guys in the country but can All-American given the right circumstances and I think both might have good weekends. Cardinale I think edges him out. Finally Camacho vs LaMont. This is a tough weight especially in the ACC so again this is a seeding casualty for Camacho. LaMont drops down from the Quarters and just has more in the tank to put him over the top.

The All-Americans

Now for the rest of my predicted All-Americans there really wasn’t a method to picking them. I believe that there are three legit finalist contenders at the weight and they are Arujua, Glory, and of course laat years finalist Brandon Courtney. This is a tougher weight than some give it credit for and I think its because Lee is so dominant that its him and 2 through 8 will work itself out. I think Arujua is the guy to give Lee a tough match so I put him in the finals. Arujua will take down Glory in the conference championships which will be good enough to earn him a 2 seed. Glory will get 3 or 4, I think 3. So it will be a rematch of the EIWA finals in the semis. Arujua again will take him out, probably on a UTB escape. Glory will then fall to Schroeder in the Consi-Semis back Schroeder is determined to win, Glory will take 5th, Shroeder 4th. The guy Schroeder loses to in the 3rd place match will be Brandon Courtney. Courtney will advance to the semis losing to Lee by at least a major decision. He drops to Taylor LaMont in the consi-semis and bounces back to place 3rd and LaMont gets 6th. That leaves Sam Latona vs Killian Cardinale for 7th. Cardinale will lose to Devin Schroeder, again who is determined to win, he falls to the 7th place match. His opponent in Sam Latona will drop his match to Taylor LaMont and I think this will be close. Latona faces Cardinale and I think beats him soundly for 7th.

Wrap Up

If you have read this far thanks and remember to stop by in a day or two when I release my 133 lb preview. That one will be fun, that much I will tell you. Lets get the conversation going on in the comments section. What did I get right? What did I get wrong? Let me know I would love to hear your opinions.

2021-2022 PIAA Key Dates

Preliminary Schedule

First Practice – November 19th

First Scrimmage Date – November 26th (2 allowed scrimmages)

Start of Regular Season – December 10th (Max length of Regular Season is 12 weeks and allowed 22 Regular Season Contests)

PIAA Team Wrestling (District Deadline) – February 5th

PIAA Team Wrestling (Preliminaries) – February 7th

PIAA Team Wrestling Championships – February 10, 11, 12 at the Giant Center

PIAA Individual Wrestling (District Deadline) – February 26th

PIAA Individual Wrestling (Regional Deadline) – March 5th

2022 PIAA Individual Championships – March 10, 11, 12 at Giant Center

These dates are provide on the PIAA Website were you can read more key dates for other PIAA sports.

Freestyle vs Folkstyle at the High School Level

So, since last week’s impressive performance at the Olympics for Team USA Wrestling, more specifically Men’s and Women’s Freestyle, there has been a debate blowing up between 2 sides of wrestling twitter. Should we wrestle more Freestyle at younger ages so we are more successful in the future? Or should we stick with what we have done with Folkstyle and post season Freestyle tournaments like Fargo? And I’m here to answer that question for you all today.

Now forgive me if this takes a turn down a path some might not appreciate, or even want to hear, but things need to be cleared up here. The Folkstyle vs Freestyle conversation is not what we need to be concerned with here. Yeah I know I said I would answer the question, but the topic is irrelevant if we don’t have the wrestlers to even put on the mat.

The Issue at Hand

Within wrestling media, we have grown from covering an individual state to the whole high school wrestling landscape. If you pay attention, you know who the best kid is coming out of California, Iowa, PA, New Jersey, etc. are. And do not get me wrong it is a great thing that we have it. It has expanded my view on high school wrestling and most likely many others too. But when we cover an entire nation and focus on the top level of competition, we become ignorant to the local, long standing issue. Schools are having a difficult time fielding a full Varsity roster come December.

Now I will only speak about Pennsylvania with this issue because that is the state I want to cover, and I have lived in my entire life. The state of Pennsylvania is known as one of the best wrestling states in the country. The state of PA this year produced 7 NCAA finalists with 2 national champions (Spencer Lee, and Carter Starocci). So, Pennsylvania is up there in the best wrestling states in the country.

Pennsylvania’s Issue

Some people who live in Pennsylvania might not even believe and will deny what I’m about to say. But it is true. This…………

(https://www.trackwrestling.com/seasons/DualMatches.jsp?TIM=TIM=1628840297404&twSessionId=mtiyatbzrb&dualId=6089914132&teamId=755636138)

is a common box score for most high school wrestling dual meets during the season. This doesn’t happen at your Wyoming Seminary’s or Malvern Prep types of schools. This happens at the public school, PIAA level. Even in the State Dual Meet Tournament, there are multiple forfeits in a matchup. The best schools in the state are determined by how many kids are on the roster. Now of course these wrestlers have great talent, but if you are a team that has 7 great wrestlers, but you show up to a 13-weight dual meet, you will have a tough time winning that dual meet.

The Wrestling Dilemma

Schools are struggling to field a full roster and are in discussions of combining programs between 2 or 3 different schools in the immediate area. Most kids do not even know what the sport of wrestling is in these areas, and it is made fun of because of the stereotype that we all know kids have said. Kids are more interested in playing football, or basketball and the local glory that brings in over a sport like wrestling or any other unpopular sport at the high school level. The reality of wrestling is that it is in a terrible place with programs either being cut or threatened to be cut. We saw 8 years ago with the IOC trying to eliminate wrestling at the Olympics because the audience is not there, it does not make them any money. We have lied to ourselves in saying that the sport is growing, and we are lying to our peers saying we want to grow the sport.

“We Want to Grow the Sport”

That is the common sentence we hear from wrestling fans and media, “we want to grow the sport.” But nobody is actually doing anything to grow the sport. No one is putting in the extra effort to expose younger generations to the sport. Instead, all of the major tournaments that would draw some kids to the sport just by watching it are hidden behind a pay wall. It cost me $150 to watch PIAA’s this year, I cannot access most rankings because I have to pay for it. Brackets are starting to be more readily available but 5 years ago you could not find brackets to most tournaments. The exposure of the sport costs fans money and sometimes it is a lot of money, and the content is not worth the money. Fans do not want to have to pay hundreds of dollars a year just to know what happens in the sport. Some in wrestling media provide a lot of information for free, and I appreciate those guys, and I understand people are working hard and deserved to be paid, I get that. But we are having bigger issues than a folkstyle vs freestyle conversation, but that is what some are focused on now instead of the real issue.

Conclusion

I hope some have read this far and if you have, I hope you understand that this is a bigger issue than the main talking points that I just talked about. Wrestling could be in a good place going forward but we as wrestling media and fans need to do our part to grow the sport to the point, we can have the folkstyle vs freestyle conversation because it is worth having. We need to support our local programs and support does not mean just paying the programs money. Show up to a local high school dual meet with your children and expose them to the sport. My dad took me to the PIAA wrestling championships when I was a younger kid, I dabbled in wrestling as a younger kid because of it, and I fell in love with watching the sport after I was done participating in it. I proposed a “pro wrestling” idea that you can read if you want. We need to provide wrestlers with the monetary opportunities and the television exposure to draw more eyes to the sport. The more eyes on a sport, the more kids will want to participate in it. I am not saying wrestling is a sport for everyone, it in my opinion is one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports that you can do and is not an easy sport to actually do, but if a kid can get that bug watching Gable Steveson takedown Petriashvili in the final seconds on primetime TV it might inspire them to start wrestling. We need to make kids understand that wrestling goals and lessons can be taken into other sports and your life. Wrestling is a building blocks sport that can better kids with attitude issues or kids struggling with picking up a work ethic. Exposure is the first step in growing anything, if we lock everything up behind a pay wall, fans are less willing to spend the money. I hope people will understand that we can do more but until you as a fan or a media member understand you have the power to grow the sport of wrestling and it is a huge need, we cannot have the folkstyle vs freestyle conversation.

How we can Capitalize off of our Olympic Wrestling Success to Grow a New Fan Base

Man after that Olympic performance from Team USA it has got me thinking that we need to expand the exposure if the sport of wrestling. As we all hope that with the efforts of both our Men’s and Women’s teams, brought more eyes onto the sport, how can we keep those eyes on our sport? See I have the feeling that wrestling at the Olympics is the only exposure that our sport has on the public eye except the NCAA Championships in March but that is hidden by the Men’s Basketball Tournament.

So what do I think we should do?

What we should do is have USA Wrestling look into forming what I call the RTC League. If you are new to wrestling beyond college or don’t even know what that is, RTC stands for Regional Training Center and they have served a great purpose for our domestic wrestlers. Almost every major college has a RTC connected to them like the NLWC which has a lot of the Penn State coaching staff and the Hawkeye RTC which has a lot of the Iowa coaching staff. This is where a lot of our wrestlers go after college and it is now starting to be used as an unofficial recruiting tool.

So lets talk about my proposed RTC League. I believe that with the help of USA Wrestling being a governing body we can collect all of our RTC’s together and have dual meet competitions just like NLWC has had over the last year and a half.

How will the league work?

This can be structured the same as a college dual meet season with 10 opponents per team on a weekly schedule. There doesn’t have to be a set day for the dual meets and I think at least 1 dual meet a day will be good enough. This can all culminate into a dual meet playoff with the top 8 or so teams competing in a single elimination, with consolation, tournament to decide who is our nation’s best RTC. There could also be an in-season open tournament, separate from the US Open where the teams can send as many wrestlers as they want. Since USA Wrestling will have a hand in this it can help with seeding wrestlers in qualifying events like the US Open or Senior Nationals.

What time of year should this happen?

I believe the best time of year to do it is in the Summer. Yeah you can be losing guys to other international events but these rosters are pretty big so there could be substitutions in the lineups. Plus it would give off that wrestling is a summer event in the United States since most of our wrestling is done in the winter. Competition wise it would only have to compete with the tail end of the NBA Season and the MLB which I think can be favorable and broadcasting companies like ESPN and Fox Sports will be more likely to offer a broadcasting contract. And yes I do think that this needs to be on TV networks and not just streaming services. Most people have TV networks like DirecTV and Dish so I think it’s important to keep most of it off of streaming websites. I would’ve said the winter but I think it’s important to not take away from college teams like their coaching staff and wrestlers. It could possibly start around the first full week in May and end in early July.

What styles are included and how many weights?

I think the best way to start off is Men’s and Women’s Freestyle and phase in Greco-Roman later down the line. We need to get our best product out in front of new fan base and I think Freestyle is the best option and then introduce people to Greco-Roman. This will have 10 weights in accordance to UWW weight classes so our wrestlers are better prepared and can find out their best weight for World or Olympic qualifications.

This is kind of my first initial thoughts on a RTC League and it probably will not happen but here is to hoping. I do think this is a great idea though because we don’t have a “pro-wrestling” so I think this is the best way to do it. A lot if the logistics like contracts and moving between programs I haven’t thought out but I’m hoping we can keep it the same as it is now that you won’t be so tied down.

 

 

What Conference Realignment Means for NCAA Wrestling

Wow, isn’t Texas and Oklahoma throwing a wrench into the collegiate sports landscape. As this article explains, (Conference Realignment ) Oklahoma and Texas are in the talks of moving out of the Big 12 soon. Now right now, sports media is only talking about football and the two schools that can potentially move, but there is way more to resolve here.

The first thing we have to resolve is what will happen to the Big 12 once the schools leave? For wrestling, the Big 12 members are WVU, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Iowa State. They also have affiliate schools which are Utah Valley State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Wyoming, Northern Colorado, Fresno State (Maybe), and Missouri who was just added to the conference for wrestling a few months ago (Missouri to the Big 12). But as a whole the conference has 10 member schools and that’s what keeps a conference alive. Now with the departure of two schools, that would leave 8 remaining which means the conference can either add schools or implode (most likely). This can create a scrambling effect with other schools so how can realignment shape college wrestling?

Who’s on the move?

WVU, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State will be on the lookout for new conferences to join. For the sake of argument let’s say they target Power 4 Conferences now that the 5th is gone. Where could they go?

West Virginia – ACC and Big Ten

Iowa State – Big Ten and Pac-12

Oklahoma State – Big Ten and Pac-12

For WVU the ACC makes the most sense. It will realign them with Pitt which is a big rivalry no matter the sport and will generate revenue. Plus I think WVU has a great shot with recent recruiting to compete in the ACC. WVU to the Big Ten is purely geographically based and I don’t see the Big Ten as the first choice.

For Iowa State the Big Ten makes sense. It guarantees that Iowa vs Iowa State competitions will continue and will give them a little better standing in the state of Iowa recruiting-wise because when we think of wrestling Big Ten is king. By joining the Big Ten it can cut into Iowa’s recruiting which can balance out the competition, maybe. The Pac-12 only makes sense if the rest of the Big 12 members decide the West Coast is the best option.

Now Oklahoma State is interesting. Out of the three schools, OK State is going to instantly make whichever conference they join better. The Big Ten would make sense if WVU and Iowa State join, I don’t think it’s a solo move. The Pac-12 I think is the fit. The competition will be there but OK State will not have to step in and take on a powerhouse like the Big Ten. I also believe that with the move to the Pac-12, OK State can open up a California recruiting network that can prove valuable.

For the affiliate schools, other than Missouri the Pac-12 will be the move most definitely just based on geography. Missouri will now be in a big pickle, even bigger than what they were in 2012 when the school left for the SEC and the wrestling team joined the MAC. The move will probably be the Big Ten. I think to stay competitive recruiting, the Big Ten will be the better move. The MAC has already been tried and that experiment didn’t work that well for Missouri in March, sorry MAC fans but it’s true.

Watch out for Kansas, insignificant as they are in most sports not basketball, they are rumored to be pursuing a Big Ten merger. Kansas might pursue a wrestling program at that point so maybe a program could be added there.

What about Oklahoma?

I know that Oklahoma wrestling is not on the minds of most people when it comes to this move but it’s on my mind. There are two outcomes to this move and one is great and one is terrible. How about the terrible first.

The terrible outcome would be the loss of the program. Obviously, the MAC is always an option and is probably the answer, but long term Oklahoma might want to replace the sport with something else. I know Missouri is in the same boat but Oklahoma will try to mold themselves around their new conference and will try to compete at the highest level in every sport.

Now for the great outcome. This would be the growth of the sport in the south. This is a dream outcome for wrestling fans and the sport. With the continuing success of Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida high school wrestling at national tournaments it makes some wonder why in-state schools would not want to try to attempt to keep those wrestlers in-state. This could provide the spark for schools like Florida, Georgia, and LSU to add wrestling programs. This growth could cause more competition and spread the wealth of wrestling out to different parts of the country. The sport of wrestling could use the eyeballs so this could be just what we need.

Is This Move Good for Wrestling?

Is it good? Yes and no. First I’ll give the yes and it’s good because the competition will get even better. It is known that most of the Big 12 schools are not that competitive at a national level and I do think it is because they are so far away from the key recruiting states like PA, NJ, and Ohio just to name a few. And people can say “Iowa has a roster full of PA guys”, and yes that is true but they are attached to the Big Ten. See I am from the state of Pennsylvania and if I want to go wrestle and I wanted to leave home I would choose a Big Ten school because there is an opportunity to wrestle at PSU, Maryland, Rutgers, and Ohio State where my parents are more likely come to a match or two than if I decided to go to Oklahoma State. What I am saying is recruiting will get even more spread out than it is and if a West Virginia joins the ACC more high school wrestlers will be willing to go there because they won’t have to travel halfway across the country for a January dual.

Now for the bad. Pitting top-tier competition together will always be entertaining for the fans and some might see that as a great thing. Who doesn’t want to see WVU vs Pitt or OK State vs PSU every year but there are trade-offs to everything and this means that mid-major programs will be on the chopping block. Look we can lie to ourselves and think that centralizing the top-tier competition together will be great for the sport but mid-major schools will suffer. I argue that for any sport to be competitive an underdog is needed not only to keep the fans watching but to keep the top-tier competition on edge. If the smaller programs start to struggle in recruiting, the athletic programs might decide to cut wrestling from the program. Now it takes other things other than success but the upside is important here and small schools aren’t going to benefit from these moves. Maybe some don’t care and feeling that cutting weight is good, but with programs already being cut more than being added. It puts our sport in a tough spot. Do we want to make it a sport where top-tier competition is all we care about? I don’t as a fan and as someone who wants to cover wrestling.

What is Next?

I want everyone to understand that all of this is about how motivated, and how willing are these two schools to bend to get out of the Big 12. And just because the SEC announces Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC is a done deal, doesn’t make it immediate, it’s better explained here: (Realignment Explained) but to sum it up the Big 12 has media rights of these two schools till 2024-2025 so it’s a guaranteed thing that it will happen in 2025 but the schools will want to push for the move sooner than that and possibly it can happen in 2022. There are hoops to jump through but once Oklahoma and Texas leave, the others can then go because unless schools are added to the conference, the Big 12 will no longer exist. This will make it easier to leave and that’s the only way you can see rapid movement as I’ve discussed.

This is a momentous shift in the college sports landscape and I promise you, we aren’t done yet.