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So you’re saying to get rid of cautions and penalty points?

I did like “the two thumbs” as well. Basch is OK but his PSU homerism gets annoying

Any ideas what this means for his WWE career? I agree with “yawn” as far as the NCAA season goes, but maybe this makes it more likely he competes internationally again?

That is probably the reason, but I have to imagine he might come back at some point otherwise I’d think he would have done a “retirement” video or something. Also his LinkedIn says he started that job in November 2022 but he was posting wrestling videos until May 2023

Is he calling for double stalling?

Lol c’mon, it’s Starocci, next topic. Unless Gable is actually back

Lol that doesn’t make any sense. If you “let” someone lay on top of you, that means the bottom guy is stalling? No, that means the top guy is stalling, especially based on the new rule.

I’m not sure how a thread about 3 point takedowns turned into top and bottom stalling, but: -sitting on an ankle -double boots like 90% of the time -Double spiral ride to name a few

I’d agree with brain here. 125 more just has a ton of parity. Ramos beat Spencer Lee last year (could have beat him even without the pin) but also lost to Anthony Molton

I didn’t say you did, it was an honest question, and I honestly think Palmer does have an argument to be ranked #1 or 2. After Figs, the rest of the top 125’s all have some questionable losses (as does Palmer but at 133). But he also has a win over Nagao, not that that really factors into 125 rankings. I think one argument for him being ranked so low is in theory you could look back at some of Palmer’s losses to guys that also spent time at 125. I believe the only one last year is Lamont, who has losses to Kaylor (2022) and McKee (2021).

My picks in order of confidence: Starocci Brooks Vito Woods O’Toole Figueroa Van Ness Haines Truax Hendrickson

What does the ranker's oath say about common opponents? Should Palmer be #1 (or #2 behind Figs) because he's undefeated at 125 and has a common opponent advantage over Ramos?

I think it's really only because of the common opponent result. I would imagine if a post grad entered Midlands and beat one guy but lost to a different guy it could have impacted the rankings.

I think the reverse. I don't see why the All Star match shouldn't count on records. But I think it makes sense not to count matches against non-NCAA opponents.

Yes and I think that is fine. NCAA doesn’t count matches against high schoolers, but it still happened and is perfectly valid to include as ranking criteria. I wonder what the “ranker’s oath” or whatever would have said if Blaze had beaten Palmer…would Ramos had stayed #1?

Based on the new rule, if the top wrestler is not working for a fall (yes I get that is subjective but I still like the rule), then yes this is in fact stalling. I don’t necessarily hate the ability to score more riding time points though. But that would result in less people choosing bottom as well.

Have you two made up?

They brought it up on FRL. Apparently Marcus and Ramos had practiced together before

wasn't that the year he beat Bajrang at Beat the Streets? I'm pretty sure that was part of what started the "he's our best chance to medal" talk.

According to wrestlestat they both should have one more year after this one.

In my opinion, no. I don’t think we’ll really see any more guys choosing bottom due to the 3 point takedown. If anything, I think it could result in a few more (but probably not a huge amount) guys choosing neutral to just go for a takedown instead, and not risk being ridden. Especially since there’s now also the potential for a 3 point nearfall in addition to 2 & 4.

Of course more people would choose top and no that part of it is not a problem. I’d guess right now choices are somewhere around 60% bottom, 35% neutral, 5% top. If escapes were zero it’d probably be something like 75% neutral, 25% top, 0% bottom. So while there’s a chance the mat wrestling that does happen is more exciting, there will be considerably less of it and I’m not even convinced what’s left would be more exciting. Like I said, you’d probably just have guys trying to hang on for riding time, and another downside is I’d bet you’d see less scrambles because when the top guy senses danger he’d be more likely to just let go. I’m actually more of a fan of neutral wrestling than mat wrestling. But I don’t think a match needs to be 6 minutes and 45 seconds of neutral. And once again, if refs do actually call more stalling on top with the new rule, that alone should help make mat wrestling more exciting.

Maybe he was just sick, you’d think someone from the press or something would have asked the question at some point though

Doesn’t a “reversal” exist in freestyle at 1 point? Could be wrong. Removing the escape point would basically eliminate mat wrestling except for the best top wrestlers. Maybe a couple more guys than current would choose top, but literally no one would choose bottom. There may be a little mat wrestling with guys hanging on to try to get riding time then letting them up, but that’s about it other than a few guys and feet to back moves. I like them adding the rule about top guy must work for a fall. Already saw it in action in the Iowa CBU dual (and of course Iowa was perplexed when it was called against them).

LOL. But isn’t it odd that a team’s head coach missed their season opening dual following a tumultuous offseason and there hasn’t been a peep that I’ve seen as to why? Channeling my inner Minnow, could it be some sort of meaningless 1 match suspension for “lack of institutional control”?