Ultimately, you can throw fan attendance, television ratings and everything else out the window when it comes to measuring the strength of a sport. Instead, you have to look at just one person -- a college's athletics director.
Since the conclusion of the NCAA Wrestling Championships just a couple short weeks ago, three of the biggest jobs in all of college wrestling have opened up. And there are rumors of others, including at least one more in the Big Ten Conference.
Call it coaches retiring, coaches resigning or coaches being fired, but all three Athletics Directors agreed on one thing -- their programs were not going in the right direction.
Coaching slots at Iowa and Ohio State now must be filled. Olympic champion Cael Sanderson will take over at Iowa State, as was expected. But the timing of all three will continue to be questioned.
The carousel began last week when Russ Hellickson announced an end to his 20-year reign at The Ohio State. Undoubtedly, Hellickson had seen some rough times with his program recently, including a protested match that was re-wrestled at the NCAA's this year. That almost seemed to be a breaking point.
But with one of the nation's largest athletics budgets looming in search of a top head coach, including the likes of Rob Koll, Tom Ryan, Tom Brands, Iowa folded its hand on its entire coaching staff.
Jim Zalesky may have had the toughest job in sports, which no one could argue -- following a legend. While Zalesky produced solid results at Iowa, the administration decided that after nine years, the program needed to be more competitive towards a national title. Forget that recruiting has completely changed since Dan Gable left, and that kids now know they can win a national title at almost any school.
Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby flinched on Ohio State's move. In all reality, he would hate to see a coach such as Brands take over at Ohio State, instead of at Iowa. It would be an ironic twist for the program that rose to prominence after Gable left Iowa State.
Another possible Iowa candidate would have been Sanderson, who brought in the top recruiting class in the country a year ago to Iowa State -- yes, even better than Brands'.
So Iowa State did what they had talked about doing for two years, letting Douglas ride off into the sunset while Sanderson, this generation's version of Gable, was not allowed to ride a Cyclone two hours west to Iowa City. While this move was more predictable and expected, the timing couldn't have been more momentous.
This was Iowa State's way of telling Iowa "Not this time!"
And so now the wrestling world is left in limbo for the first time in decades - maybe ever. For college football fans, this time comes every year. Programs that struggled get rid of their coach (however they want to word it) and bring in fresh life.
Brands has already become wrestling's version of Urban Meyer -- a young coaching prospect with a plethora of potential and respect. He is surely the top candidate on the lists at Ohio State and Iowa -- and with good reason, just as Meyer was the top candidate at Florida and Notre Dame over a year ago.
Athletics Directors are finally showing that they care about wrestling. But not only that they care, but that they want to win as well. Oklahoma State's four straight titles will most likely be in jeopardy next year, and the wrestling world is seeing the rise of programs such as Cornell, Hofstra, Michigan and Illinois among others.
Wrestling budgets are on the rise. While the Big Ten and Big XII Conferences have always placed money into their budgets, the smaller schools are starting to reap benefits. Cornell has one of the nicest practice and competition facilities you could find. MAC schools are all starting to bump scholarships up, and for those that have over nine scholarships, they are seeing their budgets increased. Other smaller programs such as Northern Iowa, Cal Poly, Edinboro and American have even become more competitive with national programs.
Small schools are now being referred to as mid-majors, with Central Michigan playing the role of Gonzaga most recently. Maybe George Mason can become the next… George Mason.
Soon, we may start seeing the "Iowa Clause" or the "Oklahoma State Clause" written into coaching contracts, similar to the "Notre Dame Clause" in college football. Who knows, maybe Brands and Ryan already have such a clause.
And all this excitement could only mean good for the future of Real Pro Wrestling as well. The more that colleges begin to care, the more money they begin to use to fund a "non-revenue sport" such as wrestling, the more people on a national level will take notice.
The more people that take notice of the live NCAA finals on ESPN, or of the individual athletes within the sport, the more they will follow these athletes beyond their college careers. Wrestlers such as Ben Askren who set themselves apart from the rest in the personality department will reap the most benefits of this.
Last year, a record three wrestlers were nominated for ESPY Awards. This year, it's possible another two could be up for awards again. If the ESPY Committee is taking notice, and athletics directors are taking notice, certainly Average Joe sports fan will take notice.
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