Photo/Sam Janicki,SJanickiPhoto.comThe Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences announced this week that they would not be playing football in the fall semester, or 2020. The decision would push any season to 2021, possibly abutting the NCAA basketball season.
Like everything from birthday cakes to the postal service, this decision has been politicized. As a non-football fan I don't care much about the loss of games as it's not part of my weekend tradition. The athletes will suffer from not being able to play, the fans will miss their teams, but the biggest impact will be on the non-revenue sports whose budgets depend on the income from football.
As with almost anything in the United States, football has also become big business. Profit drives the motivations for the decisions, which itself is bothersome. Then there is the issue of athletes pay, oversized administrative budgets, Title IX scapegoating, and the list goes on. The pandemic isn't so much causing these larger issues as it's stress testing the systems already in place, and as we've seen clearly they are largely unjust, over levered, and patently ridiculous in their vulnerabilities.
Wrestling will be affected by the recent decisions. Several programs will be cut and the future of college sports will change forever. That change got me thinking about the next system and what could become of wrestling were we to move solely to a non-academic setting. What would it look like? What are the positives and negatives? Who stands to gain the most?
First, I don't think we should eliminate sports from the academic experience as I think it enriches the lives of so many who would otherwise never have the opportunity to attend a four-year school. There are also those on campus who are inspired by their classmates who show great effort on the field. Sports are representative battles that allows for comradery and community in a way that science competitions can't mimic.
But, we need to look to the future and what a club-based system in the United States would look like and how it would operate and under whose direction.
The last question is the most straightforward. Rather than create an entirely new governing body to replace the NCAA rules and structure, USA Wrestling could form a subsidiary organization to govern a folkstyle wrestling league in the United States. The benefits would be tremendous in allowing a seasoned organization to lend its expertise to the development of a brand-new league. They can leverage relationships and have an active understanding of what each asset is worth, whether it's negotiating with a bid city for the National Championships, the value of marketing, TV/streaming rights, or even the cost to operate and run a tournament.
With USA Wrestling controlling the length of season, eligibility, weight categories, rule changes, and everything else there would be tremendous opportunity for a more reactive governing body -- one that is more in tune with the needs of the athletes and invested in the outcomes. Committees and commissions of wrestlers and their trusted advisors would ensure that the best information and ideas are making their way to the mat.
The number of club teams would be dramatically lower than the number of college programs, but there would be year-round competition, more money in the till for each of these programs via rights and advertising and far less overhead on monies to be raised for scholarships. Teams would continue to be regional, but the degree to which they recruit is up to them. If coaches in Western Pennsylvania wanted to make Top Guns into a national powerhouse and the post high school level they could keep their kids home since the incentive to wrestle at Iowa or Nebraska or NC State would lessen. Arguably, the grip on local pride would deepen and the regional aspect of the competitions would come alive.
Without school as the main driver the athletes would feel free to pursue their wrestling careers as professionals and could profit from their image in a myriad way. They'd be paid by local car dealerships, Condom Depot, and whomever else feels like sponsoring their action. Individual athletes would also receive stipends from the club, win bonuses, and just about every other financial incentive imaginable. They could freely travel to train overseas. Or they could stay put. Their call. And when Top Gun wants to travel overseas together and take on the top Kazakhstan club? It would be achievable.
The total number of competitions could also increase along with two competition seasons; freestyle/Greco-Roman and folkstyle. There could be a relegation system used by the clubs that would help generate sustained interest in each competition. Team scoring could even reflect the ongoing battles in the standings, i.e. knowing that your athletes needed to win by a certain number of technical points to secure a top four placement in their league and thus some financial incentive.
We don't HAVE to live inside the NCAA's bubble. They will leave us behind the moment we aren't practical to their bottom line. They force us into archaic rules about eligibility and make athletes follow outdated protocols. What's in it for wrestling? Why not take a chance and break away? Why make the NCAA a priority when they don't care enough about the sport to protect it from elimination? Why give power to a mostly nameless and faceless institution when we can create our own?
The pandemic has stressed an antiquated system that's tried to leave wrestling again and again. How we choose to react in this moment will determine the next 50 years of the sport in the United States. Let's look for ways to be independent from the cult of football and the overlord in Indianapolis. We should rely on our diverse and capable community and create a system that can grow and change with our needs, and that we will be proud of for generations to come.
To your questions …
Q: The moment(s) we've been anticipating around college football are starting to happen. Both the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their seasons with the intent of hopefully having a spring season. SEC and ACC are saying they're continuing forward and will make decisions as they get more information. Big 12 is saying they're going forward with the season. Clearly professional sports with all of their resources and the money tied up in it, haven't been able to find a good solution yet and that's with sports like baseball where the person-to-person contact is far lower than most other major sports. To me this has a duel effect on wrestling: first this reduces the likelihood of a season this winter or even spring and second is the beginning of a probable worst case lack of funding in athletic departments countrywide due to lost tuition, football revenue, 2020 March Madness, and likely lost or vastly depressed revenue from 2020/2021 basketball.
With all that in mind, how does college athletics proceed as a whole? To me, wrestling should be looking to join forces strategically with other teams/sports to figure out ways to survive as offered sports for the long haul now versus being focused on a 2020/2021 season? We, wrestling, will not be the only potential chopping block sport when budgets tighten. As with many things, COVID-19 has wrenched open the cracks in college athletics. Big existential questions can and should be addressed: Do NCAA athletes finally get paid if indeed seasons proceed and they're essentially working in a hazardous environment? Is now the time that basketball and football rosters get pulled out of the evaluation of Title IX due to their disproportionate impact on those numbers? (The intent only being to then reduce the likelihood that schools chop smaller sports both women's and men's in the short term to retain the viability of their money-making sports.) Do athletes get a players' union so they have a voice and bargaining ability at the NCAA level versus being tied to their scholarships?
-- Jon G.
Foley: There are very concerning issues everywhere you look. The simple truth remains that without representation and payment you cannot force these kids to go out and compete in a sport where they don't have any say in the health decisions. A players' union could advocate for them, or the ability to strike, but without that the athletes are being held hostage by the whims of the administrators.
I covered above how I think wrestling can adapt to the sea of changes, but it won't happen overnight. There will be a culling of programs and what they do to survive will largely determine how wrestling will operate in the United States in 5, 10, and 20 years.
I don't think that Title IX should remove football from the equation, but I do think that schools should find creative low-cost solutions to fund sports with bigger head counts while also reducing the overall scholarship amount for the sport of football in general.
Q: How do you see the Daniel Cormier-Stipe Miocic fight playing out? Do you think DC will rely more on his wrestling? Seems like that would be his best path to victory.
-- Mike C.
Foley: I'm pulling for Daniel Cormier, but with another wrestler standing across the cage I feel like even a loss for DC would be somewhat OK. The man is retiring!
If history has taught us anything it's that this fight is kill or be killed with a knockout being served in the first and second bouts. They are evenly matched and have punching power that can equate to stunning turns in momentum.
DC is getting a little long in the tooth and had a pretty significant weight cut, so if the fight lasts longer than the third round it's more likely that Miocic will find his way to victory. For DC to win he needs to pour pressure on Miocic in the first minute and see if he can get Miocic to create an early mistake. If not, he needs to find the cage and make Miocic fight in close. Uppercuts have a way of working well when your opponent's chin is above your head.
As for the wrestling, he'll focus on the upper-body control he can force on Miocic and look for takedowns from the tie-up. Wouldn't expect him to attack from too far away and risk getting his head too far in front of his hips. Miocic is a lot of weight to carry and a legit wrestler himself.
I'm excited for the fight.
Q: The 2016 Olympics were four years ago. What was your favorite wrestling moment from Rio 2016?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Maybe just that it happened. There is a lot of disappointment in not being in Tokyo right now providing fans great content from the Games. There are certainly good reasons for not hosting the Games, but it's such a wonderful event that it's OK to mourn their disappearance this year.
As for my favorite on-the-mat moment it was probably Helen upsetting Yoshida. The energy was incredible and the moment felt historic in a way I hadn't been a part of since Cael won his fourth NCAA title. Beating a legend like Yoshida to become the Olympic champion is just a one-of-a-kind moment.
Kaori Icho after winning gold in Rio (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)My second favorite moment was watching Icho win her fourth and then immediately embrace a photo of her mother who had passed a few months prior. Icho doesn't show a lot of emotion on the mat and to know that she felt secure in recognizing her mother just off the mat was something I'll think about for a long time. A lot going on in one moment.
I can definitively tell you that the Mongolians stripping down was my least favorite moment of the Games. Not that funny to me at the time, nor is it now. Just a sad moment for the sport.
But hey, 2021 will be wrestling's best Olympic Games to date. I promise.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Helen
Icho
Q: What do you make of the WUG wrestling event on Aug. 30?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Any professional event that has controls in place to protect the athletes and officials, and is OK by local laws, seems to be achievable. Look at the NBA! I'm not sure where this is being held or how much COVID testing is in place, but I'm suspect that they will be over-testing the athletes.
Also, this very well could be a great opportunity for the wrestler to make money. However, with Chael involved I'd recommend that anyone competing ask for half their money up front.
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