This coming weekend, the nation’s best college wrestling teams will face important dual meet tests. Well, most of them will. And some of them will be competing against each other.<\/p>\n
You see, two events will bring together the nation’s best talent, save for Iowa this year. The Hawks are sitting out the National Duals, sponsored by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. That event features No. 1 Cornell. Second-ranked Penn State, which tied Cornell in the Southern Scuffle – a bracket tournament, not a duals format – last week will headline the Virginia Duals.<\/p>\n
The NCAA does not have a championship format for dual meets. Events like the National Duals intend to replicate that kind of competition, but rely on teams accepting an invitation to compete. With other events like the Virgina Duals on the schedule as well as concerns of the upcoming conference dual meet schedules, the opportunity to wrestle for a mythical national dual title doesn’t appeal to everyone each year.<\/p>\n
Some people want the NCAA to find a way to schedule a true national duals championship, much like most high school athletic associations do. I could definitely get behind that because the winner of the existing national championship doesn’t truly measure who has the best 10-man team with one in each weight class. Duals are a totally different animal.<\/p>\n
I don’t expect this to happen. I do, however, think the NCAA could make one easy change which would split the difference between finding the best duals team and keeping a team with a few outstanding wrestlers from capturing the NCAA title ahead of better-balanced teams.<\/p>\n
Right now, teams can enter one wrestler per weight in their conference tournament or NCAA regional meet. These events determine who advances to nationals. What if each team got 10 entries to the post-season with no regard for weight?<\/p>\n
Let’s use Penn State, the team I follow most closely, as an example. The Nittany Lions have a weak spot in their lineup at 197. They have a couple of young wrestlers there, but neither is expected to qualify for nationals out of the Big 10.<\/p>\n
At 141 and 147, they have outstanding freshmen in Andrew Alton and David Taylor. Both should finish in the top eight as All-Americans and could even compete for a national title. They also have outstanding backups in senior Adam Lynch (141), who went to nationals last year, and freshman James Vollrath (157), who finished third in the Scuffle and has impressed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Why can’t Penn State field one of them in Big 10s instead of Nick Ruggear or Justin Ortega? If a dual meet format is not installed to figure out who has the best team within the limits of one wrestler per weight class, why not let a team wrestle two guys at one weight? So what if one team can put two people on the All-American stand at the end of the season? Is it better to see Iowa put all three of its outstanding 133-pounders in the conference tournament or watch them enter guys with no chance of reaching nationals at some other weight just because they have to.<\/p>\n
Wrestling always searches for new ways to generate interest. A duals tournament could do that, but a fresh look at who has a chance to win an championship at the end of the year can also get people talking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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