Who are The Big Boys on The Big Board

[Wrestleknownothing]

Now that we have established that the Big Board matters, lets take a look at who is optimizing (haha, we know who it is) the Big Board talent.

• From 2015 to 2022 (2023 class has not competed yet) the race for the most Big Board Top 20 wrestlers is pretty tight.
• PSU has the edge over Ohio State 18 to 15.
• But PSU has gotten 27 AA finishes from those 18 wrestlers (1.5 per) while Ohio State has gotten "only" 18 from 15 (1.2).
• But where things get really crazy is that 23 of PSU's 27 AA finishes were first, second, or third (85%), while Ohio State had 7 top threes among their 18 AA finishes (39%).
• Iowa gets trashed a lot for under-performing, but the real issue is they under-recruit. They got commitments from only 9 Big Board Top 20 wrestlers. So, even though those wrestlers averaged 2 AA finishes per, there just were not enough of them.
• One caveat. The school where the wrestler committed gets credit for all the wrestlers AA finishes regardless of where they were achieved. This hurts Iowa with a lot of recent transfer AAs (DeSanto, Eierman, Woods) and PSU (Dean, Kerkvliet).  My logic is this is a measure of high school recruiting rather than retention. For a fuller picture, you would want to look at retention too (independent study opportunity?).

 

 

It could be that PSU is just getting the best of the best leading to those best in class results.

• But, that is not completely the case. Ohio State has brought in slightly higher ranked wrestlers on average.
• ASU has also brought in higher ranked wrestlers on average, though significantly fewer of them.

 

 

 

[nhs67]

You are on mfckn FIRE.

[Dark Energy]

Thanks for this too!  What about looking at those ranked mid pack on the board?  How many by team and how many AA’d?

[Wrestleknownothing]

12 minutes ago, Dark Energy said:

Thanks for this too!  What about looking at those ranked mid pack on the board?  How many by team and how many AA’d?

Stay tuned

[Gantry]

Penn State from 2015-2023:

• 18 top 20 recruits
• 15 national titles from them

#2 from #9 in total top20 recruits

• 74 top 20 recruits
• 10 national titles

PSU had a quarter of the total top 20 kids from 2-9, but 50% more titles.  Unbelievable...

[Wrestleknownothing]

11 minutes ago, Gantry said:

Penn State from 2015-2023:

• 18 top 20 recruits
• 15 national titles from them

#2 from #9 in total top20 recruits

• 74 top 20 recruits
• 10 national titles

PSU had a quarter of the total top 20 kids from 2-9, but 50% more titles.  Unbelievable...

And I mislabeled the table. Should say 2015-2022 as those are HS grad years.

[Gantry]

I'll forgive you, but only this time...