steamboat_charlie

I think he'll come back if Cael cares to line up some $$$ for him. Not sure he'll be inclined to do that. It doesn't look like they'll need him to win the title, although perhaps he will anyway just to be doubly sure.

You're not clever, clever, clever.

What's with the "OSUe?"

You're acting like "administration" is some sort of black box that can't be understood. It's really not that complex. Coaches without direct experience running programs at the collegiate wrestling level have been hired in the past, and many of them have had success. This isn't a phenomenon unique to wrestling.

PSU, fine. The point about Mizzou is an argument against Wisconsin's staff, not for it. They had their opportunity to establish a pipeline from AWA and it failed miserably. Minnesota didn't just nab Hopke, they also got Millard and Duchateau.

Worked just fine for Virginia Tech with Dresser. I think the "working with administrators" issue is way overblown. It's not that complicated. You hire an experienced assistant and get somebody from athletics compliance to work closely with the new staff. As far as fundraising goes, a new coach with some pop that brings results, and specifically one that's a local legend, is going to have a lot easier time raising funds for facilities and NIL than a lame duck coach that looks like he may be on his way out in a few years.

They're not doing anything particularly well at the moment. There are 7 top 100 overall recruits currently in high school in Wisconsin. Not a single one of them is committed to Wisconsin. Minnesota, Missouri, and PSU are eating their lunch.

You'd hire Max, not Ben. But who knows if either would even want the job.

Not sure why anyone would be stressing about this. What are the chances Ferrari actually exhausts all of his collegiate eligibility, without doing something so colossally stupid that he's once again out of the sport? I'd say about the same as his chances of qualifying for the Olympics.

I don't think it's likely Ohio State wins, but there are plenty of individual matches they could reasonably turn around. - Ragusin has wrestled very well this year, but Bouzakis certainly has the firepower to beat him. - I don't like the Gomez matchup for D'Emilio, style wise, but D'Emilio tends to build throughout the match and if Gomez doesn't open a big lead early there's a chance DD could nab a win late in the 3rd. - Lewan wrestles every match to a 1 or 2 point decision in either direction. - Amine is wrestling poorly, and Hepner beat him last year when Amine was having a similar run of bad form. - Bullock is having a nice year but isn't a guy you can just pencil in for W's against slightly inferior competition. - Davison is a definite favorite but Feldman seems to be getting back on track after a dreadful December. Again, I'm not predicting an upset, but there are plenty of opportunities here to turn the dual on its head. It's also in Columbus and will be a sell out in a loud venue.

Are you having a stroke? What does this have to do with this thread?

Uhhh... let me stop you right there. 7 champs would be shocking. Very shocking. I would be shocked. Electrocuted. 10 AA's I think many of us were speculating before the season could be in the cards--seems less likely now with SVN down, but it wouldn't shock me if it still happens.

Agreed there. I find both Brands highly amusing, glad they're in the sport.

Yes, it is my opinion. That's usually the point of places like this... to express one's opinion. If you want to say Griffith has had the better career, I'm not going to argue with you, but it's not like it's hugely lopsided. Giffith - 103-14 career - NQ, 1, 2, 5 Hidlay - 111-13 career - NQ, 2, 5, 4 Griffith caught lightning in a bottle and won his title as an 8 seed. It was awesome. That's really the differentiator. He hasn't improved since 2022. If you've watched both guys compete this season and come to the determination that Griffith is better, then there's really nothing I can say to sway you. We can just watch the season unfold and see how they both perform, and circle back at the end of the year.

Two years ago, sure. In 2024 Hidlay is the better wrestler, any style.

You say that like it's not impressive. Hidlay is an absolute beast, better than either of the other champs at 174. He's 16-0 with a 90% bonus rate. He won Bill Farrell a couple months ago beating guys like Dieringer and Kentchadze. And Brooks is better.

Strange awkward man gives strange awkward interview. Heck of a coach, heck of a wrestler, but just a strange strange dude. Still prefer his style over Cael's.

Oversimplified, perhaps, but definitely not disingenuous. Nobody is going to just hand you (and apparently everyone you know) $100k at 22 years old, just because you graduated. If you're an engineer (shot in the dark, because Purdue), it's going to take a little longer. That's the nature of that industry, but then it would've been your choice to pursue that career. Fact remains, there are hundreds of tech and financial firms that offer over $100k, in base salary alone, for entry level positions. If you don't want to go the traditional route, plenty of people in sales positions, wealth management, insurance, real estate, etc., can make that sort of money one year out of school. On your last point, whether athletes have an easier path to admission depends on the school, but at every single Ivy there is still a baseline academic standard that you have to meet. Many elite wrestlers wouldn't qualify even if they wanted to. I'm aware of the average aid packages--that's why I mentioned " very generous need-based aid."

Well for one, they don't offer athletic scholarships. They do generally give very generous need-based aid, but if wrestlers don't qualify for aid, you're looking at the following base level cost of attendance (tuition + fees): - Cornell: $88,150 - Penn: $89,028 - Harvard: $79,450 - Princeton: $86,700 Beyond that, the cross-section of elite wrestlers and elite students isn't that large. You have to be able to meet a relatively high bar to get in. Most of these guys have spent their entire lives focused almost solely on wrestling. Many of them imagine their future careers will be in wrestling--it's all they know. This is why half of Cornell's team is in the ag school. Lastly, you don't need to go to an Ivy to make $100k coming out of college. You need a brain and a little ambition. If the #1 recruit in the nation wants to attend PSU and also try to maximize his income coming out of undergrad, he can easily do that if he's smart enough.

Good stuff. Perhaps in 20 years when Cael hangs them up we can speculate again on who will actually win the thing. Very tough to separate these teams at the moment, at least in a tournament setting. Each seems to have a few locks for AA, and a number of guys on the fringes that will likely end up making the difference.

Wow that was 4 years ago.... time flies. Well hey you never know, maybe 2024 is the year he finally pays up. I do believe they're still accepting donations.

Thanks, that's helpful. Traveling this weekend, will take a look on Sunday.

Like I said before, when I have more time I'll give you some more examples. You can say I'm "digging in my heels" and try to paint me as the illogical one, but you just equated the European and Asian Championships to the Maine State Championship. Who's the one exaggerating? If we follow your example, what is PIAAs? World's? That doesn't track with your methodology either, because you seemingly don't value performance at the world championships. Instead you pick and choose which matches are relevant, because their relevance is entirely dependent upon whether an opponent is presently ranked higher than them in your rankings. What I was asking you to consider, and you're choosing to ignore, is this: in order to keep Marsteller at #4 you had to slingshot Abasov up to #3. Otherwise Marsteller would surely have to drop with his loss. But outside of his victory over Marsteller, what has Abasov done to deserve that ranking? Can you not recognize the circular logic there?

I don't only value tournament placement, but you seem to ignore it entirely. Using your logic, the best thing a wrestler could ever do is upset your #1 ranked guy, jump to #1, and then sit out the rest of the year. Abasov "came out of nowhere," because he had been competing at 86kg for some time, and you have him ranked #3 in the world at 79kg now, why exactly? What did he do to deserve that ranking? Oh, that's right, he beat Marstellar. That's the beginning and end of it. The bottom side of that specific bracket had the Asian and European champs in it. You can claim Marsteller would've been favored to make the finals, would he have been there, but it's complete fantasy. And that gets back to my issue with your rankings--they rely far too much on fantasy. Theoretical matchups. Laddered transitive properties. Not enough tangible results. It's a self-perpetuating methodology that relies upon itself to decide if a result is meaningful or not. If somebody wins gold at the European or Asian championships, but they don't have to wrestle against guys that you've ranked ahead of them, you assign essentially zero value to that championship. I don't think that's appropriate.

If it were one tournament I would agree with you, I'm talking about over a year of results. If you honestly think Marsteller is the 4th best 79kg in the world, ignoring what you think about rankings, then I trust your opinion far, far less than even your rankings.