Much was posted about the match and what the falling of Snyder meant for the NCAA team race, the abilities of Coon and the future of weight distribution at the NCAA level. There is no doubt that after their first encounter this season it'll be Coon who is the favorite heading into Big Tens, and a win there would make him the runaway favorite in Cleveland. Snyder, for better or worse, is now the underdog.
But what does Snyder's loss mean to NCAA wrestling? Overall, not that much. Fans know that giving up 65 pounds is less than ideal, but most also recognize that adding another weight class is a nonsense response to a single wrestler's two-point loss. That said, there could be some discussion about moving 197 pounds up to something like 205 pounds, which would be more in line with international freestyle weight (213 pounds) and allow some more power in the penultimate division. Either way, the only weighty issue here is Snyder ceding the tonnage in protection of his international weight.
Congrats to Coon, it'll be a difficult task to best Snyder twice and an even loftier achievement to beat him three times.
To your questions …
Q: Almost every year there seems to be a surprise wrestler who makes the finals at NCAAs? What's your out-on-a-limb prediction for such a wrestler at the NCAA finals?
-- Ryan P.
Ryan Deakin battling Zain Retherford at the Keystone Classic (Photo/Juan Garcia)Foley: Ryan Deakin.
Q: How can you want so much importance placed on dual meets when no team has any depth? Penn State and Iowa don't even have decent backups when someone is hurt. There are only about ten teams that actually budget for wrestling in the country. Most don't care or if they do, don't have the finances. Look at Edinboro.
-- Steve M.
Foley: I'm not sure how you are qualifying "decent" backups? There are plenty of wrestlers on rosters who don't get the opportunity to compete because the starter takes all the action. That doesn't mean they're incapable or non-existent. Explain to me why it would it be detrimental to have a back-up wrestle? If Nick Foles can win a Super Bowl and Jesse Whitmer an NCAA title, I feel good about the backup 157-pound wrestler from N.C. State being a gap solider for The Skip during some parallel universe where duals matter to the NCAA title.
The future is duals. Tournament formats are confusing for casual fans, and even diehards struggle with tight scheduling, which also hinders promotion. Those opposed should compare the recent gates (and levels of promotion) of recent Big Ten duals against that of Midlands and Southern Scuffle.
No contest.
Q: Missouri will likely finish the regular season with a dual meet record of 19-0. Do you think there is any chance the Tigers would beat Penn State in a dual meet?
-- Mike C.
Foley: No, I don't think that they match up well. But I also think your question illustrates the larger point, which is people are interested in meaningful team competitions, not just tournament scoring.
Q: One of the criticisms of NCAA wrestling is that the dual meets don't really count. In fact, other than qualifying your spot, nothing really matters. The Ohio State-Penn State dual is exciting to many of us, but it's hard to draw in new fans when the narrative is "win or lose, so what until March?"
I'm not sure how to fix this, but do know that the Freestyle World Cup will be in Iowa City in a couple of months, and having followed that the past few years, this format is exciting. I realize we're not long from wrestling fighting for its life in the Olympics, but what are your thoughts on the idea of an Olympic team competition?
The Olympics are two weeks long, with the wrestling competition taking place near the end of the second week. My proposal would be to move the individual competition up close to the start of the Olympics, with a team tournament in week two. Take the top 8 ranked teams going in, so three duals on successive nights. Each team's alternates are eligible to compete, giving different wrestlers rests and chances, giving coaches a chance to play around with the lineup. You could combine the men's and women's teams into one dual squad.
It may never happen, but I think it would be great to tell stories and create drama, and to sell the sport to new viewers. Your thoughts?
-- Brennan B.
Foley: Yes.
The International Olympic Committee bids out the Games with a fixed number of entries. This helps organizers budget, and the IOC then has the ability to shift that number around as they see fit. Just yesterday it was announced that some established sports were going to be asked to cut the number of qualifiers in their events to help with the addition of more events. That doesn't impact your model directly, except to say that qualification spots are tight.
Assuming you could get past that hurdle the obvious fix would be to have a mixed-gender team for the Olympics. Judo is already experimenting with the format at their World Championships and finding it to be wildly successful. Wrestling may want to do the same, but has more work to do in promoting women's wrestling in more countries. As of now freestyle teams would be limited to a select number of countries competitive in both styles: USA, Japan, Russia, Turkey, India, Canada, Mongolia, China, Nigeria, Belarus and even that list is thin.
The World Cup is an incredible event and one that attracts a disproportionate number of casual fans. I'm guessing that the interest comes from the easy-to-sell storylines ripped from current events and longstanding geo-political strife, which helps propel the sport into the modern narrative. I also think that it's much easier to sell the nouns Iran and Russia than it is to sell Yazdanicharati and Gazimagomedov. Simple, but it plays a role.
Overall, I'm hopeful for a team format in the coming years and would lobby hard to make it happen at the World Championships or elsewhere. But keep in mind that travel is also a big consideration when calculating the feasibility of any new plan. It's inexpensive to fly a team around the country, especially when compared to flying teams around the world (and acquiring passports, etc.).
Q: NCAA RPI and Coaches rankings were released (Friday Feb. 9) and there were a lot of big names missing on the RPI list (no Vincenzo Joseph, Isaiah Martinez, Alex Marinelli, Logan Massa or Richie Lewis at 165 in the RPI). I understand that in order to be on the RPI list you must have wrestled 17 matches, but if a wrestler does not get 17 matches by the Feb. 22 list (that is the basis for allocations) does the conference/weight class miss out on an automatic qualification spot for the NCAA Championships? Example: Kyle Snyder will not reach 17 matches by Feb. 22. Will the Big Ten lose out on an allocation for heavyweight? I am sure this does not happen often, but with what seems to be a trend of guys getting less matches in a season due to international competition, unforeseen injuries and resting matches during conference duals, will it play a factor in where allocations go?
-- Hylnder133
Foley: The automatic bid will be missing, though in the case of Big Ten wrestlers you might assume -- with some rationale -- the spot is being absorbed by another Big Ten wrestler otherwise nestled between 34-40 in the RPI.
I don't think an adjustment should be made for the international competitors, or those missing out due to injury or sitting out. The system isn't asking too much with 17 matches and those who do miss the auto-qualification should find it very easy to qualify in the allotment of their conference.
Certainly, a risk should they get injured in the tournament, but of no greater significance than the risk being taken by the wrestler who competed 17-plus times in a season.
Q: Do you think we will ever see an NCAA Women's Wrestling Championships?
-- Gregg Y.
Foley: Yes. Because progress is human nature and female wrestlers are total bad asses. The only thing holding back the NCAA is conservative thought about the role of women. With that "skirt bias" disappearing women are finally getting their chance to show wrestling fans their sport.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Directed and produced this short film on Cuban wrestling. Be sure to give it a watch!
Q: After Kyle Snyder's loss to Adam Coon I have seen a lot of people commenting that there should be another weight added between 197 and heavyweight. I understand that Snyder is giving up weight, but he gave up weight the last two years. Nick Gwiazdowski, David Zabriskie and Tony Nelson all gave up weight. Light heavyweights have been winning. The only recent full heavyweight to win was Zack Rey. Guys that wrestle at 230-250 are quicker than the big boys and that's part of the excitement. Why do we need a change?
-- Ryan R.
Foley: We don't.
Q: Does UWW, USA wrestling or the NCAA release when they do drug testing? Seems after Yarygin a certain wrestler has not looked very good and I'm sorry to say in this day and age with Lance and MLB everyone is suspect.
-- Steve M.
Foley: I don't know which wrestler you are referring to, but all those bodies do some sort of drug testing both at tournaments and in-home. USA Wrestling tends to catch drug infractions before they happen at the international stage, much like universities screen athletes before the NCAA Championships.
You should always be a little skeptical, but I think that in wake of the recent scandals we've seen -- at least in the short term -- a cleaning out of international sport.
Q: Have you ever seen this before? What happened that the dual needed to be canceled?
Old Dominion 13, Ohio 6
125: Michale Mcgee (ODU) maj. dec. Trevor Giallombardo (Ohio), 16-4
133: Caleb Richardson (ODU) dec. Cameron Kelly (Ohio), 5-2
141: Alex Madrigal (ODU) dec. Mario Guillen (Ohio), 6-2
149: Kade Kowalski (Ohio) dec. Kenan Carter (ODU), 5-1
157: Larry Early (ODU) dec. Cullen Cummings (Ohio), 4-1
165: Joe Terry (Ohio) dec. over Luke Drugac (ODU), 7-6
*The dual was canceled after an injury during the 174-pound match.
-- Frank S.
Foley: The 174-pound wrestler went unconscious during the match and had to be resuscitated by paramedics on the mat. Officials chose to cancel the rest of the dual.
Q: What are the odds Jason Nolf is done for the season due to his knee injury? Last season Cael said Nick Suriano would be competing at Big Tens and NCAAs after his ankle injury and we saw that was not the case. We seem to be getting a similar message from Cael this time around with Nolf.
-- Sammy T.
Foley: I couldn't make odds, but I think you are on to something. While watching Penn State's post-dual celebration following their win over Ohio State I noticed that Nolf was on crutches. He is much younger than I am and a better athlete, but at no time in my life have I gone from crutches to mat-ready in a month. Limp to 50 percent? Maybe. But in seeing his crutches I lost some hope that we will have the full, if any, of the Jason Nolf experience.
Q: Hope you had less of a miserable time traveling back from Africa than I have had in the past. Got a question for you. This weekend I coached a high school team in our section tournament and was consistently frustrated by the lack of consistency in calls (stalling, out of bounds, what is control, etc.). I'm not too far removed from college wrestling, so I may be biased towards more of the black/white rules the NCAA uses. While I agree the rules aren't perfect, I do think that regardless there should be some alignment between what is considered control/out of bounds.
Do you think there should be alignment with high school and college rules? Just some I think contribute to better wrestling:
**Both of these just make the refs job easier.
Any others you think? (4-point nearfall, dropping to leg 5 counts?)
-- CP
Foley: I don't get to watch a lot of high school wrestling, but it's always surprised me that the same style of wrestling would have different rule interpretations. I get that a shorter period might be in effect, but what is the point in having variable rule sets?
The fact that you don't earn riding time until college stands out as one of the oddest rule changes. The reason probably stems from quality control, and the inability for many schools to provide the right equipment to track riding time. But really, that's only a guess.
One suggestion to make it easier for everyone … switch to freestyle!
Q: Much will be written about Adam Coon upsetting Kyle Snyder, but I want to ask your thoughts on the most important and under-reported aspect:
Coon unbuckles his headgear, spins it around sideways resting on his forehead and walks around the mat to get his hand raised.
I have seen guys do that for years and think it looks totally ridiculous. Not illegal, not unsportsmanlike, just a cheesy habit that bugs me. It ruined the glory of the moment.
What wrestling habit like that bugs you or readers of the mailbag?
-- Dave B.
Foley: If I'm being honest, I have to say that these exact words came out of my mouth. Not sure why I don't like the headgear turn -- and Coon has always done it -- but I've always found it off putting.
I don't "care" per se, and I don't find it unsportsmanlike, I just don't find it aesthetically pleasing.
Q: In a previous mailbag, you replied, "Lord, no" when asked if Adam Coon could beat Kyle Snyder. Now that it has happened, what are your thoughts? Do you see Coon beating Snyder in March?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Heckle me for a wrong call and then ask me to make two more … c'mon, man!
Yes, I see Snyder winning any/both rematches.
SIDENOTE OF THE WEEK
It was reported this week that Martin Floreani has been asked to step aside from his role as CEO of FloSports. While no details were made public, it'll be interesting to see what, if any, impact the move will have on FloWrestling.
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