According to the language released yesterday by the NCAA, matside reviews will abide by the following protocols:
Matside video review may be used to confirm or reverse on-the-mat decisions, except a fall.It's widely assumed that this video process will correct some of the missed calls we see throughout the season and at the NCAA tournament, because for many people that is the only thing instant replay symbolizes: Always getting the correct call. However, video review is not a panacea for correcting calls. In fact, many of the calls wrestling fans will find most controversial won't be allowed to be overturned.
The matside video review process will operate under the assumption that the ruling on the mat is correct, and only when there is indisputable video evidence that a ruling was incorrect, will a call be changed. Absent that evidence, the original ruling will stand.
Each team will be allowed one coach's challenge per dual meet, including team advancement tournaments, to be used at the coach's discretion.
Each team in an individual advancement tournament, excluding open tournaments, will be allowed three challenges to be used at the coach's discretion. If a coach's challenge is successful, the team will retain that challenge.
A coach may ask the referee to stop the match for a challenge by approaching the scorer's table when there is no significant action and requesting that the match be stopped.
It's the same way in football. Look at the total societal meltdown caused by Monday night's Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks NFL game. The game ended in what many thought was a blown call. To the booth! But the reviewers had rules, they couldn't overturn the call on the field of a touchdown (possession isn't challengeable) so the booth review was only to see if the ball was caught, which of course it was. Arguably the worst call in NFL history and it wasn't reviewable.
Now take a look at wrestling. The last questionable call that decided an NCAA championship happened in 2012 when Jordan Oliver wasn't granted a takedown in his last-second scramble against Logan Stieber. Fans booed, coaches complained and message boards erupted, but would the call have been overturned?
Likely not.
Under the new rules the scramble and possible takedown would have been reviewable, but was there irrefutable evidence? Not in the mind of the referee. That scramble lasted several seconds and the position didn't change for more than five seconds, which means that the referee had time to analyze the action and determine whether or not control had been established. In real time he didn't think so, and while slow motion might make him second-guess, he'd have to have gorilla-sized testicles to hand over an NCAA championship on something he only moments ago saw as a non-takedown. The fact that fans are still debating the call means that (as happens in wrestling) there was not a rock-solid answer.
What about the famous (notorious?) non-call in the Johny Hendricks vs. Ryan Churrella final in 2006? We know that we can't overturn a fall, but can you go back in time and call a fall? Is there any amount of video evidence that can be provided to prove that a back is flat on the mat? Wouldn't the referee, when in position, always have the correct call? Though I personally believe Churella got jobbed, the video review system wouldn't have been much help.
So what's left? College wrestling fans will have to endure and entire season of challenges for takedowns on the edge, riding time points, backs exposures, escapes, and reversals. Most tournaments will average more than 60 video reviews, which will result in hours of lost time. I'm not sure when the last time you went to a wrestling match, but they are classically hampered by inefficiencies and can last well into the night. Video reviews will force tournaments like the Big Ten tournament well past midnight on Day 1.
The system is also be open to abuse. It's easy to see that coaches will use the challenge to give their wrestlers a breather in big matches, but there are larger questions of use. Who is really keeping track of each school's challenges during a tournament? What is the baseline standard for video angles? Two cameras? What if the call is off-screen? Our videographers aren't exactly being trained for this job, and most are just volunteers. Will they be heckled for not videoing from the correct angle?
Wrestling needs more marketable events, not regular season nit-picking of our officials calls. The system is not going to handle the expectations of coaches and fans. Were I a coach I'd see those three challenges as must-uses, that my job require I challenge late in a tournament just to ensure I keep my wrestler competitive. In dual meets, the challenges might preserve team points, so it will always end up being used.
College wrestling has never been more popular, but the speed of video review and the potential for abuse by coaches could mean a potentially great season of action will be mired in senseless controversy.
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