College wrestling coaches and fans are still weeding through the calculus of what an additional championship event might mean for the sport of wrestling at the Division I level. That discussion has allowed for several key pieces of information about the sport's current financial circumstances to be released. Below is a compilation of new and previously unreleased information.
John Smith coaching at this year's NCAAs in St. Louis (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)"Oklahoma State wrestling is risking a lot considering the success we have had under the current format. But, after weighing the positives and the negatives, I have concluded that the creation of the National Dual Meet Championship is the greatest way to expand the future of our sport. We will have two major events: the Individual National Championship and the National Dual Meet Tournament. We will gain exposure for the sport of wrestling as well as generate increased income to help other NCAA sports. We will also increase the relevancy of the dual meets on campuses."
Brian Smith (Missouri) on answering to the business of college sports:
"Good or bad, college athletics is a business. Having two revenue-making tournaments run by the NCAA only helps us in the eyes of the decision makers.
"Yes, there are many details to work out, but I don't believe we can remain the same. We have to take a risk to improve our sport and get it out to the mainstream. If we choose not to do this, I promise you another sport will fill these weekend slots. I would rather take a risk and fail than to sit back and watch programs continue to decline."
Rob Koll (left) believes wrestling has "absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain" with new championship proposal (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)"It pains me to hear coaches at these schools speak as if the present will always be the future. If it were true (that when nothing changes, nothing changes), we would not have only 77 DI programs remaining. We must be willing to embrace change or we are guaranteed to continue down our current road of failure.
"Our wrestling community thinks too small; the fact that it is hard for many within our ranks to believe we cannot host two major events is frightening. If history has taught us anything, we should appreciate that protectionism is a failed concept. We have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by going down this road. If it fails, we can always go back to our current system. But if it succeeds, we have the opportunity to expose millions of new fans to our great sport."
"The nine regional winners plus seven runner-up teams (at-large bids) would comprise the 16 final NCAA schools that would compete for a National Duals title. The at-large bids would be based on strict RPI/strength of schedule determinations. Teams would be seeded based on their current year RPI/strength of schedule at the regionals/nationals."
NCAA yearly schedule would look similar to this:
Nov. 7-Dec. 31
Open tournaments/various non-conference duals. Each school would be required to have four non-conference (Division I) duals before Dec. 31 of each season.
Jan 1-Feb. 15
Conference duals. If you have a large conference, eight duals will take place within your conference. Small conferences would incorporate four or five duals and you would be required to find appropriate non-conference duals to reach eight total duals in this time frame.
Feb. 23/24 or March 1/2
Individual conference championships. Team score will be kept to determine conference champions.
March 7-9
Individual NCAA tournament. Team score will be kept to determine official NCAA champion.
March 15 or 16
Regionals. +2 pounds per weight class.
March 22/23
National Dual championship. Top 16 teams. +2 pounds per weight class.
Several more Division I coaches have sent emails that stated concerns that varied from their discomfort with the "lack of information" and "short time frame" of the proposal to coaches who clarified that this has been on the NWCA agenda for more than five years.
The coaches and fans are engaging in a very spirited debate, but it doesn't seem to matter. The Championships Cabinet is considering this on Sept. 10 and unless the coaches were to settle firmly behind a vote to not change the current system and then draft a letter, the committee is going to vote without any further information.
Editor's note: It has come to our attention that the letters written by the coaches were edited by a third party to include mention of ESPN's potential involvement. InterMat chose to run the coaches quotes without the ESPN quotes due to the possible misrepresentation of the coaches' opinions.
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