There are myriad benefits to the change. First, BTS now has the leadership of a prolific fundraiser who knows the sport of wrestling and is able to manage a large staff and budget. The biggest non-profit wrestling organization in America's largest city gives Buckley the opportunity to help an incredible number of youth wrestlers, but also continue to push the growth of the sport.
This year, under Ken Bigley, BTS launched a coed league, has been wearing modified competition outfits and is ever expanding. With Buckley in place this is certain to continue and possibly expand in new and exciting ways.
For Cal Poly the change means they can pursue a new direction. The program didn't have a qualifier in 2016, but even as the Mustangs haven't seen a lot of success on the mats, they did re-energize their donor base and excel in the classroom -- factors that can mean more to long-term sustainability on the West Coast as titles.
The Cal Poly athletic director will be in NYC to recruit head coaches. It's unclear who will apply, but along with Fresno State and the simultaneous rise of Stanford and Arizona State the West Coast and Pac-12 could be in for a renaissance on par with that of the ACC.
With NYC on the mind, we also turn our attention this week to the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships being held next week at Madison Square Garden. The event will feature all the same pomp of previous wrestling championships, but in the country's most famous arena and in the media capital of the world. Let's hope that these factor into a successful and well-covered event.
To your questions ...
Q: Which No. 1 seed do you see losing first at the NCAAs?
-- Mike C.
Foley: As with any year, there is little chance that any of the top seeds are losing in the first round. As much as we like to romanticize the first-round upset it rarely happens to the nation's top wrestler.
Despite the unlikelihood of a loss, Gabe Dean has the worst first-round matchup of any top seed, potentially having to face unseeded All-American Jack Dechow of Old Dominion (should Dechow he makes it out of the pigtail). Dean is a heads up favorite, but Dechow has the horsepower and skill to test Dean early. Add in the panic of potentially getting behind early at the tournament along with a warmed up Dechow and it could be dangerous for Dean.
Dean Heil is in the awkward position of having to look down the bracket and face North Carolina's Joey Ward in the quarterfinals. Ward recently beat Heil in Stillwater with an inside trip in overtime.
Q: What do you feel like was the biggest surprise coming out of the conference championships? Any predictions for surprises to come at nationals?
-- Ryan P.
Virginia Tech's Zack Zavatsky battles Michigan's Domenic Abounader at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in December (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)However, I was blown away by Zack Zavatsky of Virginia Tech. Having spent much of the last three years watching the international guys battle it out, I was shocked to see similar fluidity with ZZ. Like Bo Nickal, the Virginia Tech freshman is less concerned with head-banging and more focused on wrestling through to dominant positions.
ZZ does many things well, but what struck me is that he never looked to stop the action. There was always another smart option for him to pursue, and he possessed the athleticism and conditioning to carry through.
Prediction: ZZ wins the NCAA tournament
Q: Is ESPN going to televise the early rounds of the NCAAs this year? I have blocked off my calendar to stay home and watch, but I haven't seen anything published regarding coverage.
-- Tom G.
Foley: ESPN will cover every match of the NCAA tournament, meaning your stay-cation isn't for naught.
I haven't seen this year's broadcast schedule, but I can imagine it will mimic that of last year's with much of the early action on ESPN3 (you can catch every match there), but with some other rounds dispersed across platforms such as ESPNU and ESPN full-calorie.
Here is last year's schedule.
I will be doing the Off the Mat show during finals, where I sit next to a bunch of men who have won a variety of very impressive medals and compete for who can act most-crotchety about refereeing and funk wrestling.
In this competition I believe I can steal the gold.
Q: Any tips on where to suck a few beers between sessions in NYC? I would prefer a place that is close to MSG and not a zoo, if possible.
-- Mike C.
Foley: The wonderful thing about this year's NYC-based NCAA Championships is that spectators have an abundance of choices when choosing their local watering hole. I live very close to the Garden and have a selection of favorites, but if I post it here there is a good chance that the #FaceMush brigade may be trolling these spots in an effort to collect my head as tribute to Brands & co.
There really are no bad choices, except Brother Jimmy's, which is directly across the street and sure to be mobbed by fans interested in wrestling and March Madness. If you want something a little more laid back you should head south on 6th or 7th Avenue and find a pub on any of the streets between 34th and 14th. Heading over further to 8th and 9th and deep into Chelsea is also an option, though the neighborhood might not be most wrestling fans' pace.
Stay away from anything north of 34th and into Times Square as you'll be asking for even more crowds and frustration.
The other option is to head directly across town and into Murray Hill. My guess is that most wrestling fans won't make the trek across five avenues, but for those that do there is a very relaxed strip of bars that, at night, caters to the 20-something's of NYC.
The real treat of being in NYC is the food selection. Chelsea has an incredible selection, but there is also K-Town (Korean) 32nd between 5th and Broadway which has the absolute best chicken wings in NYC. If you're looking for a nice tapas plate dinner I've heard Lupolo, a Portuguese-inspired menu, is better than average.
The best way to search for places in NYC is Yelp. I still use it daily.
Q: I think it would be interesting if you wrote about NCAA weigh-ins/times and the impact they have on the tournament. I've heard some finalists are 20-25 pounds over the weight by their finals match.
-- Dave A.
Foley: I don't think that's very true.
There is a one-pound allowance given each day, meaning the third day of wrestling finalists are scratch plus two. Though finalists don't wrestle until the evening I think it's a stretch to think that anyone who is in the finals and wrestled all year would be ballooned up another 18 pounds in only 12 hours. Are they maybe 10 pounds heavier? Sure, but I think that would be true across the board.
The NCAA weight cutting rules are actually really advanced for combat sports worldwide. Every major international combat sport has night before weigh-ins, whereas the college wrestlers on the mat are getting a TWO HOUR weigh-in. While I'd like to see other restrictions on weight cutting in-place, the current system is not broken.
I suppose that if you really wanted to regulate match-time weight you could simply add a weigh-in for finalists, but I don't think that emaciated, weakened finalists is what the American viewing public wants to see.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Sofia Mattsson!
Q: Why does it appear like Bruce Baumgartner's career seems to get overshadowed by wrestlers like Dan Gable, John Smith, and Jordan Burroughs? His freestyle stats are amazing, which include four Olympic medals and several world medals. With that all being said, do you think there will ever be another United States wrestler like him?
-- Seth S.
Foley: The best explanation I can give you between national and international perceptions of Bruce Baumgartner comes from a waiter in Tehran.
Bruce BaumgartnerOur waiter comes over to take our order and through a combination of cauliflower ears and insignia realizes that we are wrestlers from the United States.
He's thrilled. Like me going for a sprint workout with Tom Cruise kind of thrilled.
"You're American!" he exclaimed. "My wife is a physical therapist!"
This, for me, was a non sequitur and as the waiter's words hung in the air we all tried on our most-polite grins. The waiter, whose eyebrows were now in his hairline in anticipation of our responses, finally relented.
"Bruce Baumgartner! His wife is a physical therapist, too!
Of course, how could I have been so incomplete in my knowledge of our wrestling great's wives?!
But think of it: this man, a humble waiter in downtown Tehran, had been carrying this morsel of knowledge and wacky coincidence in his mind for decades and with flawless timing and pride he delivers it only to get back ... crickets.
Some of those at dinner actually considered Bruce a dear friend and even they had sat stunned. They'd known of his wife and her occupation, but were stunned at the inquiry and cheerfulness with which it was offered.
The truth was that Baumgartner lost in the 1989 World finals to Alireza Soleimani, who to this day remains Iran's only World freestyle wrestling gold medalist at heavyweight. When you're talking up your guy there is no better way to advance his victory than to build up the resume of his opponents, and Bruce's is incredible. (Sadly, Soleimani died shortly after we had this conversation in Tehran.)
There are many who think that John Smith was the best American wrestler, and much of that has to do with his athleticism, creativity and overall win-loss record. But when it comes to overall Olympic and world medal haul nobody in the nation and only a few in the world can compete with Bruce's resume.
Knowing that, I'd think that we can assume that Bruce's accomplishments and length of career were once-in-a-century.
Q: With the recent push toward more aggressive stalling rules and the general outcry about the boring nature of stall riding at the college level, why when a match is tied after 2 full overtime and tiebreaker periods do we reward the wrestler who has several more seconds of riding time with a victory? To me, that's like a soccer game being tied at the end of regulation, staying tied through overtime, and then the winner being declared based on time of possession. Do you think that the rules committee would consider an alternative criteria or a totally different overtime format?
-- Pat S.
Foley: Let's be clear. The NCAA wrestling rules, as they stand, leave every wrestling match up to the possibility of criteria. The NCAA overtime is no different in theory than that of international wrestling, save the fact international wrestling doesn't add a point on at the end -- something they should adjust for simplicity if nothing else.
From what I saw last weekend in Charlottesville there were still several matches in which wrestler chose early in the second period to aim for overtime, or at least to attack in the last 15 seconds. The problem wasn't the wrestler's tolerance for risk as much as it was the referee's lack of enforcement on stalling calls. No action means stalling. Just because you both aren't doing anything doesn't somehow make it less of a stall.
The stall calls should come early and often in college wrestling. Once that power dynamic has been set we will see fewer overtime matches and fewer of the four most boring minutes in sports. I want the referee to help promote action as much as I want him to monitor point scoring.
The NCAA rules committee could (and should) review the rules for the year after next, but I sincerely doubt that they'd move away from what they believe is an elegant solution to both having overtime and hiding the much maligned "criteria" in plain sight.
Q: What is USA Wrestling and NCWA doing to save Grand Canyon. It is absolutely their responsibility to help this sport. Don't tell me how they do this or that, if we don't have post-high school opportunities at the collegiate level the sport will die. I know there are NAIA and Division III opportunities, they do not have nearly the same level of visibility and typically, not always, but typically they are much smaller schools with limited academic program variety. We need to start growing Division I and Division II opportunities. USA Wrestling should have learned by almost losing the Olympics! Let's help ignite a movement or at least get USA and NCWA to respond
-- Michael S.
Foley: You have the passion that is required to get this movement headed in the right direction. Unfortunately I don't have a lot to add to your comment since you took away all my good talking points about other divisions and the fact that this falls somewhat outside the realm of USA Wrestling's jurisdiction.
What I think hurts about Grand Canyon is that the program was being groomed to be added and that attracted a lot of attention over the last couple of years. To lose that opportunity to lose promise and hope, something that wrestlers liked and could enjoy once more.
I wish I knew more about why they cut the program, but the only thing I can tell you is that this is not the first time a school has turned back on a Division I commitment at the last moment. Several years ago Southern Illinois at Edwardsville was prepared to go Division I when suddenly in their leap year the school cut the program.
We will learn more in the coming weeks and I hope we can gain some context for the decision.
Rant(s) of the Week
By Pat S.
This past weekend, I watched the Big Ten finals with several non-wrestling fans with the hope that they would be intrigued by some top-level action and maybe even consider tuning in for other events down the road. Unfortunately, the response I got from them was one of fairly extreme boredom.
The lack of offensive output was fairly alarming especially from the neutral position (with the exception of Bo Nickal). It seemed like most wrestlers were content with one takedown or to wait out the match until overtime. Surprisingly, I haven't seen a lot of condemnation from the wrestling fan base about the snorefest that was the finals of America's toughest conference tournament (but maybe I'm not looking very hard). I feel like dedicated wrestling fans are sometimes entertained purely by the context of a match and tend to excuse the lack of action because of the nature of the matchup or because they can really appreciate the nuance of technique, etc. The casual fan or possible convert to wrestling fandom does not share in this same excitement and instead simply sees the scoreboard reading 1-1 late in the third period for the fourth consecutive match. And they shut it off.
I hope that the upcoming NCAA tournament, the crown jewel of our domestic wrestling schedule, does not fall victim to the same fate of scoreless neutral periods and dull, action-less matches that befell the finals in Iowa City. At such a critical time in our sport's development we can't afford displays like that if we are truly hoping to attract outsiders to our community. I don't know whether the blame in these situations rests with the rules, the officials, the wrestlers themselves, or some other factor. What I do know is that when several non-regulars begin watching a wrestling event with an open mind and their only comment after the first 30 minutes is, "Are either of them going to do anything? … that's a problem.
By Jay A.
For at least the second year in a row, the NCAA wrestling committee has made a joke of the seeding process for the NCAA Division I Championships. I'm particularly drawn to the committee's habit of wrestling conference foes against each other in the first round. I realize that a change was made that eliminated the conference exception to this, but I don't believe that it has improved the seeding process or the event experience. To wit: the MAC conference has conference foes wrestling against one another in the first round, the winner likely wrestles another MAC foe in the second round at 125 and 157. (Shame on Mizzou coach Brian Smith of the MAC for allowing this to happen.) No other conference was required to share this burden. Why would I want to watch a mini version of the conference tournament at the NCAAs? I have attended the championships in Iowa City, St. Louis (twice), Omaha, and Oklahoma City. After my disappointment with the championship "product" and the inherent unfairness of the seeding process, I decided not to attend the event in NYC this year and likely will not return to St. Louis or Cleveland. I understand that it is difficult to have several strong-willed individuals, many of whom have a stake in the outcome of those decisions, make seeding decisions. In the end, my complaint is this: the process is flawed and there has to be another way that improves the process. It's time to hold the committee accountable before they alienate more of the core of wrestling's fan base.
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