FanPost

Wrestling Offseason Update and Big Ten Expansion

It's been relatively quiet on the wrestling front the past few months which for the most part is a good thing. On the other end of the spectrum things haven't been peaceful in Iowa. The returning national champs lost one of their assistants who took a head coaching job at another school. I don't think this was too unexpected as many people have wondered for a long time how long they would be able to keep their talented staff together before people started offering head coaching jobs. In more serious news returning NCAA runner up Montell Marion was kicked off the team after getting arrested for DUI. That's a pretty big blow for a team that lost a ton of talent due to graduation last year.

Recruiting

Penn State's recruiting class was ranked second in the country by Intermat. Behind only Iowa who once again brought in a huge haul of top recruits from across the country. Overall Penn State got a solid first class under Cael. Not only did they add a few studs that have future all american potential, they were also able to add some solid roster guys who will add much needed depth to the program. One of the biggest issues Penn State has had the past few years is that their wasn't much talent behind the starting lineup. Injuries usually resulted in guaranteed losses by the backups. One major concern is that once again a lot of Penn State's recruits seem to fall between the 141 and 165lb range where Penn State is already fairly deep. Penn State is obviously hoping that Jared Platt will get his grades in line to provide some much needed talent and depth to the upper weights.

Also Sam Sherlock who was injured last year early in his senior campaign has already resumed wrestling so he should have no issues being ready for the start of the season.

Big Ten Expansion

The Nebraska addition has been beaten to death on the football front but this move also has big repercussions in wrestling. Nebraska has been a program on the rise and has been very good the past few years. They'll add just another good team to already the best wrestling conference in the country. It will be interesting to see how their success translates with the more difficult Big Ten schedule.

In the Big Twelve this is a pretty big blow there are now just 4 remaining Big Twelve wrestling programs. All four teams are very talented so there's no real fear of the programs folding, but the conference is in trouble. Four teams won't make much of conference tournament to be honest five teams was a stretch. There are several options currently wrestling has regional tournaments that they could enter. Another option would be to add some non conference schools to the Big Twelve tournament.

The good news is the Big Twelve shouldn't be impacted to badly by Nebraska's departure. Two seasons ago the NCAA changed the championship qualifications. Conferences are awarded qualifiers based on the conference's record at each weight, and wild cards are now awarded to wrestlers who have good records during the regular season. That may be a bit of an over simplification of the process but basically despite only having 4 schools the really talented wrestlers in the Big Twelve should have no problems qualifying for nationals. When the NCAA made this change a lot of people were glad the Big Ten would see less automatic qualifiers per weight. With the addition of Nebraska the Big Ten will likely get a boost a most weights. So essentially the rich will just get richer. It will be interesting to see how things work out with the move some of the smaller conferences may again feel the pinch as the Big Ten's gain will result in a loss for another conference.


You created a Fanpost! Good for you! Any content from a premium site will be deleted once we catch wind of it--as will any inappropriate content. If you simply want to share a link, quote, or video, please consider using Fanshots instead.