Voice of the Quakers

I am a former student of Gene Mills. He is still very bitter over the 1980 boycott, and rightfully so. Ultimately, I don't think there is a one size fits all answer to these scenarios. In hindsight, President Carter's decision to boycott the 1980 games was a mistake. Right now, Russia has been legitimately accused of war crimes in Ukraine. Regardless of how you feel about aiding Ukraine, I'm not sure how most western countries can play nice with Russia right now. https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/events/russian-war-crimes-ukraine

Don't know about Sidakov personally, but I have great empathy for athletes who may be told to support Putin or else be thrown off of a hotel balcony. It's why, unfortunately, the best decision for now is just to ban Russians from the Olympics and any competition where they are expressly representing their country.

Carl had to be part of the approval process for the State College site, right? I'm guessing we get a few more PSU guys in the mix, maybe even in some bonus matches.

Would've been interesting to see if Yazdani would've been able to close distance on JB to utilize his underhooks. I have my doubts.

With 16 person brackets in the Olympics, you could easily run a true double elimination bracket. No one would wrestle more than three matches per day. Of course, when FILA tried to implement a double elimination bracket in the 1993-96 quad, let's just say the results were...interesting.

I've always likened Snyder to this generation's Dave Schulz - his early success coupled with his longevity, his interest in constant learning and improvement, his appreciation of the Russian wrestling experience. (No one else of his stature went to Dan Kolov this year.) He will have his ups and downs with a career this long, but I feel very confident in Snyder's chances through the 2028 cycle is he chooses to compete.

Those cyclists are riding for sovereign fund sponsored teams in the grand tours and other pro events, but it does not appear they have changed citizenship to represent those countries at the Worlds or Olympics. https://bahraincyclingteam.com/team/ http://www.uaeteamemirates.com/team/

This is my semi-regular reminder that 1) success as a wrestler does not necessarily translate to success as a coach and 2) there is very sophisticated coaching at the high school/junior level. Not that Princeton's search needs to necessarily include junior and high school coaches, although Blair and Delbarton are practically next door. I hope Princeton conducts a thorough search for the best coach possible. And, I hope they land on Terry Brands. His intensity and Princeton's culture would be a perfect match.

I hope Terry applies for the Princeton job. Ivy League could use someone of his intensity.

A coda to this conversation from the Knight Foundation (link below) - schools are spending more for their football coaches than they do on all costs for all athletes across all sports. You won't be surprised by one of the teams on this list: According to the report, nine of the 51 public Power 5 schools (18%) hit the crossover point in fiscal year 2022. Of those nine schools, four were in the SEC (LSU, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss), three were in the Big 12 (Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas) and the Big Ten (Iowa) and ACC (Florida State) each had one. I'm a Syracuse native. Jim Boeheim has an accurate take on the latest ACC expansion: “And the ironic thing is (schools) used to make $10 million and spend it all, now they’re making $50 million and they spend it all. So, it doesn’t matter how much money they make. They’re just going to spend it anyway. There’s no money left over.” https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38338910/many-schools-track-spend-more-coaches-player-needs

I have no problem with Steveson being done with wrestling - he owes us nothing. But, for the interests of Team USA, I want him to be either "in" or "out". Because, as good as Steveson is, can he really beat the best in the world if he is giving half effort? Would be amazing to find out, but I'd rather send an "all in" Parris or someone else.

We probably do agree more than we disagree. The B1G didn't necessarily want UCLA - they wanted USC and the #2 TV DMA (5.8 million TV households and nearly nearly 15 million people) and UCLA was part of the package. Don't underestimate the impact of the cable channels here, either, even with cord cutting accelerating. The B1G gets about $1/subscriber per cable household for The B1G cable channel. Assuming B1G now gets cleared on the LA cable systems, that would be an additional $1-$1.5 million/month for the channel just in LA, not to mention the other CA markets which would will pick up the channel moving forward. (Wondering how many systems clear the ACC Channel in CA or TX with their moves, although that network gets much lower rates per household, because, well, the football just isn't that good.) Maybe there is a similar opportunity for B1G to clear all of the cable homes in NC by adding UNC, but every day another household cancels its cable service, meaning the economic opportunity for the B1G here diminishes over time. Again, Florida State makes me chuckle. They are hanging so much on last season when their fans wanted to run Mike Norvell after his first two seasons. Their attendance last year was still down 15K from 2014, which was the first season after their most recent national championship. They better win Saturday against LSU, because their hopes on and off the field could fall apart real fast if they don't.

I get this is all about football, by which I mean money. UNC's brand power is via basketball. No one cares about their football team outside of alums. They do not move the national needle one bit via football. And that will be true even if Drake Maye wins the Heisman this year. Most casual college football fans will say "Who?" Whatever football brand they have would be whittled away moving to the B1G and taking their beatings. FSU thinks they move the needle via football. I know they're sharing TV ratings data with the other ACC schools that portray themselves in the best possible light - I could probably shoot a million holes in their data. (How many of those high profile games are against UF and ND? Who is actually the draw?) Again, I don't see why the SEC would invite them - again, UF will object - when the next move by the SEC, short of adding Clemson and telling South Carolina to take a hike, would be to get smaller, not bigger.

The list of ACC schools looking to leave the league for football purposes, other than Clemson, is comical. Florida will campaign against FSU or Miami, which has flat stunk in football for the past two decades, from being invited to the SEC. The football history of UNC, NC State, UVA and VT is negligible. I can understand UVA and UNC wanting to join the B1G for the academic prestige; enjoy the annual drubbings against Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc. Ultimately, among big time schools, you can argue that only Penn State has benefitted from the realignment of the past 20 years, and they weren't previously in a football conference. Imagine how things would be different if the Big East hadn't stiffed them decades ago. Finally, I am really looking forward to the inevitable collapse of these new super conferences and a return to more regional competition across football and all sports. It is inevitable that some combination of Bama, UGA, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas, etc. looks at Kentucky, Vandy, Ole Miss, Miss State, MIssouri, etc., and says "Why are we sharing our football money with these jokers?" and the other conferences will follow suit.

Sprint freestyle and butterfly. He's really hard to beat at 50 in every stroke. Rising junior. Lots of room to improve - he just finished his first year of club swimming, and he's still never been in the pool more than four practices a week. He'll probably swim D2 or D3 - he could swim low D1, but we're more focused on finding a school that's the right size, environment, and offers his potential majors, and some of these low D1 schools have no business playing D1 sports. (Many are smaller than his high school.) I should say, recruiting in swimming is absolutely cutthroat. The whole goal is to recruit over the top of your roster - in a sport of early bloomers, that's pretty easy to do. Makes me more impressed by how Cael is able to keep things so copasetic (at least, on the surface) with his kids at PSU.

OSU has won 34 NCAA team titles. The standard is different for them. If you're good with finishing 13th, 3rd, 3rd, 14th and 18th at the past five tournaments, I'm not going to argue with you.

True, but the trajectory of the OSU program has been downward for many years. And, while I don't know Coleman Scott at all - his record at UNC was good, not great - this seems like a case where "keeping it in the family" may not be the best path forward for OSU. Koll, in the meantime, gives no impression of having lost a step in the coaching/organization front.

Not Koll's fault that between his flirtation with Oklahoma and now 1) Stanford's support for Olympics sports once again became tenuous due to the collapse of the Pac 12 and 2) Coleman Scott left UNC, opening up the spot. My son is being recruited to swim in college. We've met some great coaches, but there's a reason why I'm advising him to choose a school and not the coach.

https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/11210487-how-close-is-d1-wrestling-to-adding-a-national-dual-championship Fascinated by the potential changes to the NCAA wrestling calendar Andy Hamilton suggests are possible in this article regarding a dual meet tournament. There's been a lot of talk about turning wrestling into a single semester sport to move the individual tournament out of the way of March Madness. But, I think this split schedule could better align the collegiate schedule with the USA Wrestling schedule, and, at first thought, I think I do prefer the tournament phase in the fall semester and the dual meet phase in the spring semester. One downside is the death of the holiday tournaments, but many of them (looking at you, Midlands) are a shell of their former selves, and I don't think the wrestlers and the coaching staffs won't mind recharging over the holidays.

Wrestlestat has them 81st of 81 in D1 with a starting lineup including one senior, one sophomore and eight freshmen. I wish them luck, but this year is going to be a struggle. As I noted in the previous post, I hope there are smaller opens on the schedule where their kids can pick up some wins and confidence.

I know it's not about this year. But, improvement typically happens in stages. Take a step up, get better recruits, take another step up, etc. Hopefully there are some smaller opens not listed on this schedule where the current team can perform and gather confidence so that they are as prepared as possible for Year 2 and more attractive to future recruits.

God bless the ambition - you do want to have a few high profile events to capitalize on the attention the program will have in its first season - but this seems a bit much for a team that will likely finish 18th at the EIWAs if they are admitted to the conference this year.

NC State's success would seem to indicate success at UNC is not that big of a stretch, and I think we all know how much UNC hates to be 2nd choice to NC State in anything. Also, if Koll takes the job, I'm guessing the financial commitment from the school and his fundraising abilities follow.

I think all bets are off at Stanford until they get their football situation fixed. Could see another effort to cut some Olympic sports. Koll may be doing what's best for Koll. If so, can't blame him, and can't expect him to rescue Stanford twice. On a side note, as a swim dad, there is something going on with the women's swim team. Massive roster defections. Some OLY redshirts, maybe NIL money. Could be more going on at the Farm than just wrestling.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333060/