The NBA this week experimented with shorter games, knocking four minutes off total game time by making quarters 11 minutes as opposed to 12. The talk of the experimental quarters and the announcement that the NBA signed a mega-billions TV deal spurred discussion among players that they also want a shorter season.
The length of the MLB game is also under close scrutiny, with internal suits and outside consultants all trying to figure out how to sharpen the presentation of a game that once took roughly two hours to complete, now gobble up more than three hours.
Wrestling should take note. The NCAA wrestling season is far too long, running a full five months of the year (November-March). That number of matches is unique to America, and in many ways harmful to the athletes (weight management, injuries, distraction from school) and the sport (diluted importance of matches). To what ends? What's the benefit? We know the costs are higher departmental expenses, increased injuries and less interest in the sport throughout the regular season.
The NCAA competition committee should move to institute a one-semester competition calendar by 2018, if not sooner. Athletes should only compete in one academic semester, a move that will improve school performance, and give many the ability to connect with their families rather than starve their way to a few extra W's for their coaches.
To your questions ...
Virginia's Nick Sulzer finished fourth at the NCAAs at 165 (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)-- Mike C.
Foley: Please ... Nick Sulzer has doubled in technical improvements every year. He's got Coach Garland and two NCAA champion wrestling partners in Keith Gavin and Jordan Leen.
I've always been a Dieringer fan, but when it comes to a matchup against my fellow University of Virginia alumnus, I keep it loyal.
Sulzer, 4-2.
Go Hoos!
Q: Are there any videos online about how the rule changes helped save wrestling in the Olympics and why they made changes?
-- @mattg197
Foley: Yes.
Q: When will redshirt announcements occur? So damn frustrating trying to find out who will be taking a redshirt! Why so secretive?
-- @Eagle_Fan
Foley: College wrestling coaches are like international wrestling coaches who are like high school wrestling coaches. There is a strong belief that withholding information will somehow give them an advantage -- that a wrestler unleashed without warning is like an extra queen on their chess board.
Wrestling coaches don't do a ton of lineup management. The sport is mostly based on a meritocracy and lineups, through weight classes, don't allow for too much arrangement -- there is no pinch-hitting, pinch-running, designated hitters, etc. My theory is that coaches withhold these nuggets of information because it allows them some managerial oversight and for many that feels like control and work.
I don't know for sure if Nico Megaludis is redshirting, though I've heard rumblings that he will. Does it matter to know now? Maybe. Is it annoying that we have to guess? A touch.
Q: Anthony Valencia vs. Mark Hall this weekend. Who are you taking?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Valencia, 7-6.
Q: What is your opinion on the public vs. private debate?
-- @Prlab1
Foley: In terms of high school participation, I don't see why there would need to be any side. The debate isn't about if your child should wrestle at a private school, as there is nothing inherently wrong with wrestling at a private school. Same applies to public.
The argument -- and this has been going on for as long as I've been in wrestling -- is about the accumulation of talent at private schools and the perception of recruitment.
Like many wrestlers I attended a public school with no defined wrestling tradition. My coaches were great at motivation and keeping me focused on my goals, and though we produced Division I wrestlers on occasion, we were not considered a wrestling school. Though my path didn't include specialization, I can understand why some parents and students would seek that experience -- even at the expense of the greater desire for competitiveness or the ever-slippery perception that is competitive equality.
As with top-level students who excel at the violin or chemistry, wrestlers should be allowed to pursue their talents at a young age, so long as they retain balance and perspective.
The other issue, and this is more a problem today than even ten years ago, is the cost of college tuition. Sometimes paying a little for high school could save you 100s of thousands of dollars in college tuition in the form of a scholarship and prevent a lifetime of student loan debt.
Maybe it's just as plausible to earn a scholarship from a public school, but when the motivation is saving 500k dollars in loan repayments the choice to go private can seem like an intelligent, calculated risk.
Multimedia Halftime
Foxcatcher Trailer No. 4
Link: Bennett Miller and Channing Tatum talk playing through the pain
Link: The Brands bros. do comedy and it works
Link: Sumo school is a magical place
Q: 2015 is wide open, but right now is Cornell the favorite for 2016?
-- @Rob_SwagginU
Foley: How are you so confident in jumping ahead one season?! The 2015 season will help dictate who can compete for the team title in 2016 as the growth and stagnation of current sophomore and juniors comes into focus, and the hype of incoming freshman receives a reality check (or not).
Anything can happen in 2015 and those outcomes will help dictate who is in contention in 2016. I don't think Cornell is in any better shape than Penn State, Ohio State or Minnesota. They are all reloading and in 2015 could have individual successes that change the argument and leave the field as open in 2016 as it is in 2015.
Q: Who finishes higher on the podium in March, J'den Cox or Kyle Snyder?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Damn.
I haven't seen Snyder wrestle an entire NCAA season, but on the flip side I don't know if Cox will be affected by the loss of Sammie Henson to West Virginia.
I'm going (very tentatively) with Cox. He's seen the season, overcome its grind and proven himself a champion. Snyder will need to show the ability to make it through a very long, very difficult season.
Q: I saw that Brock Gutches replaced Tyler Wilps at the NWCA All-Star Classic. I remember reading a Joey Davis interview on InterMat where he talked about wanting to wrestle in the All-Star Classic. No disrespect toward Gutches, but why would he go instead of Davis? Was Davis not asked?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Davis was asked, but declined because he won't be wrestling until the second semester. Really, really wish we could have seen him wrestle in the event!
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