The five-month, two semester college wrestling season culminates with NCAA Wrestling Championships in March (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)The answer seems to be the one mothers recite all too often, "Well, because I said so." In this case, Mother is the NCAA.
When the season schedule for wrestling was first outlined, presumably by men in the 1960s puffing cigars, wearing sweater vests, and watching "I Love Lucy," there was no script for how non-revenue sports might one day adapt to current for-profit demands of NCAA member institutions. Likewise, when they met to come up with a schedule they in no way could have predicted that in the new century non-revenue sports would be capability to become profitable. That is of course the new reality, but as sports like lacrosse speed by wrestling, the current NCAA administrators seem to be content to hang back and watch the opportunity to make significant and positive changes. Can you blame them? It can be tough to find the motivation to assist the student-athletes of one of your founding sports when you're flying in private jets and resting your haunches inside a headquarters which recently underwent a modest $40 million renovation.
To please the ever-expanding kingdom of OZ, college wrestling must provide an appropriate tribute, or specifically: cash-money. If that ploy doesn't pull them in, we could also compel them with stories of wrestling welfare. (Five months is WAY too long to keep you weight down.) Wrestling is profitable to the NCAA, but because we seem partial to our current schedule, or we lack the political capital to make changes we are putting at risk the chance to see what a single semester season might look like. A four-month season, January to April, with an emphasis on national exposure could help the sport's long-term financial feasibility and provide increased potential for social connectivity.
But what about tradition? College sports are about TRADITION!
Greg Turnbull and his WVU Mountaineers are Big 12-bound (Photo/WVU Sports Information)Let's be clear, this is not just an issue of money. College wrestlers begin unofficial practices the day they step on a college campus, and after four weeks those practices become mandated and turn into full-fledged combat hours. That level of intensity is carried on for five months! When compared to other nation's traditional wrestling, or even the schedule of countries that have robust freestyle and Greco-Roman schedules, the college system looks dangerously dense with competition and practices. Hell, even NFL players only practice with pads on a dozen times after the start of the season.
Wrestling's sustained exertion, weight loss, and competition schedule are brutal enough that they eliminate a portion of wrestlers due to injury, stress, and frustration (ten percent fo each squad, each season?). Understandably that culling process is part of what makes wrestling special -- that the sport is sometimes too difficult to ask everyone to make it to the end. Yet what if the season were 4-6 weeks shorter and placed within ONE semester? What would be the outcome? Would we have more wrestlers? Happier wrestlers? What about HEALTHIER wrestlers?
Student-athletes would benefit from enjoying some time with their families on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. By allowing them a first semester of moderate training first-year athletes will have a better acclimation to college life and better focus on their schoolwork and find a functioning balance in their social life. Wrestling purists like to think of sacrifice as part of the sport, another layer that separates wrestlers from that of the athletes who play games. But they're wrong. Having to suffer through a sauna workout on Thanksgiving doesn't fill you with toughness, or imbue you with courage. It drains your cells of water.
Wrestling has momentum from which to build its case. We are making money for the NCAA and with a solid plan by members of the NCAA Wrestling Committee they might be able to compel the organization to take a look at the issue from a social welfare and academic standpoint, if not a monetary one. (It's also expensive to keep kids over holiday breaks.) The committee is rumored to have once against discussed the idea of a schedule change at this year's mid-April meeting in Indianapolis, but we won't receive the report for a few more weeks.
It's inevitable that there will be some resistance. Scheduling changes would upset the balance that many schools have come to enjoy and wrestling would have to re-imagine the placement of our top secondary events like the NWCA All-Star Classic, Cliff Keen Vegas Invitational, Midlands, and National Duals. It'll be challenging, but these are doable because the upshot is better competition and more fans. Should our leaders find that they have the political capital to move the schedule to better organize the season we could very likely see a major rebirth of the sport, potentially additional programs. This is not some pipe dream. When colleges see the exposure that they could receive from having a member of their team win an NCAA title and make the top ten highlights, they might just feel it's time to take a chance. The potential for profit has made minds wander to odder business models.
Cornell fans cheer after Kyle Dake wins his third NCAA title (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)College wrestling has never been more popular. Now is the time to make it better, to attack, not sit back and play defense.
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