Trophies from the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)We knew the news was coming.
And it didn't come as a huge surprise.
But that hardly lessens the impact.
The news wrestlers had been waiting nearly three weeks for finally arrived late Monday afternoon.
The NCAA decided not to grant winter sports athletes an extra year of eligibility after the national tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
My first thoughts were with studs like Iowa's Spencer Lee, Ohio State's Kollin Moore and Luke Pletcher, and Northern Iowa's Taylor Lujan. The guys that were among the No. 1 seeds who lost out on a chance for milestone achievements.
It's so sad to think that an incredible wrestler like Spencer Lee is going to miss out on becoming Iowa's first four-time NCAA champion.
Just four wrestlers have been four-timers and now Lee's opportunity is being taken away.
Iowa State's David Carr will not have the opportunity to become a four-time NCAA champion (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)It wasn't just Lee. Talented freshmen like Iowa State's David Carr and Ohio State's Sammy Sasso also will miss out on a chance to be four-time champions.
Lee could've taken an Olympic redshirt this season, but he chose not to as he tried to lead Iowa to its first national championship since 2010.
Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis, like Lee who was halfway to four titles, took an Olympic redshirt. Yianni still has a chance to win four and now Lee doesn't.
That seems grossly unfair. It's not right.
Moore and Pletcher were Buckeye seniors who were each favored to cap their careers with their first NCAA titles. Now they won't have that chance.
Taylor Lujan was seeded No. 1 heading into the NCAAs (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Lujan's story is just heartbreaking. Here is a senior who had never been an All-American. He fell one win short of the medal podium the last two years. He was having an outstanding season and was the top seed at nationals. But now he won't even be an All-American.
There are so many other deserving guys who missed out on golden opportunities.
Look at Penn State seniors Vinceno Joseph and Mark Hall. Joseph, a two-time national champion, and Hall, who won it as a freshman, could have finished their career as four-time NCAA finalists.
That's a rare and impressive achievement. But Joseph and Hall won't have that opportunity now.
The decision on winter sports also included basketball and that likely worked against wrestling.
Wrestling's case is much different than basketball's because all of the elite wrestlers compete under one roof at the NCAA wrestling tournament.
And that's where the All-American finishers are determined. In competition. And on the mat.
The All-Americans in wrestling are not voted on like they are in basketball.
The NCAA should consider letting wrestlers who haven't taken a redshirt an opportunity to use one to reclaim the end of the season that was lost. Wrestlers like Lee, Iowa's Abe Assad and Michigan's Mason Parris all fall into that category.
And then there is the case of three-time All-American Matt Kolodzik of Princeton. He came out of an Olympic redshirt late in the season to help his team.
If he hadn't chosen to do that, Kolodzik would have another season left. Now his college career is over.
If this was about money, why not figure out a way to work around it?
How about allow these athletes an extra semester without a scholarship so they can compete in the NCAA tournament they missed out on? At least give them the option.
I understand all of the issues with logistics, numbers and scholarships. My response to that is the NCAA is granting spring athletes another year, so why can't they do it for the winter athletes who missed out on their championship?
This NCAA season was a week from being completed. But that's misleading. Everything these athletes work for -- the national tournament -- was taken away.
The rest of the season is important, but the national tournament is what really matters. That's what everyone remembers.
Penn State sophomore Roman Bravo-Young, one of the national title contenders at 133, jumped on Twitter shortly after the news broke Monday.
"What a joke," Bravo-Young tweeted. "We just gave a free year of labor to the NCAA."
The argument that most of the season was already completed rings hollow. The last week of the season carries tremendous value in a sport like wrestling.
Everything the athletes do during the season -- all of the training, the sacrifice and the competitions -- are all geared toward the NCAA Championships.
"Everyone remembers you for what you did at the national tournament."
That was the second tweet that Bravo-Young posted Monday.
His words couldn't have been more accurate for a sport than it is for wrestling.
There is no doubt that these are unprecedented times. There is a worldwide pandemic going on and people's health is greatly at risk. That far outweighs any athletic competition.
It made perfect sense to cancel all of these events. But there is still no reason why those athletes had to have an NCAA tournament taken away from them.
The NCAA had an opportunity to make this right and chose not to.
It's sad and unfortunate.
And, quite frankly, it really stinks.
Craig Sesker has written about wrestling for more than three decades. He's covered three Olympic Games and is a two-time national wrestling writer of the year.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now