You're the Commissioner. Now Fix Wrestling!

[brother bob]

As a newb I don't understand the two officials in wrestling but only one seemingly makes calls.

The one official starting/stopping/awarding points is the head official while the other official is the assist official. The assist official mirrors the head official while looking for penalties/cautions (locked hands, illegal holds, etc.), watches the top wrestler in case of a near fall/fall from the out of bounds perspective (mainly for illegal holds/inbounds or out of bounds), and if there is controversy, he can either agree/disagree/or have no opinion on the issue. The assist official cannot talk with coaches, wrestlers, or others during a match. He may only talk to the head official and mainly with issues within the match.

 

[Mead For My Horses]

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Stalling. We need bigger mats. Yes, that means fewer mats at tournaments but we can adjust. Then, put a 3-5 foot ‘warning track’ around the inner boundary. Any wrestler on the warning track in a neutral non-engaged position for more than five seconds gets a stall warning. Same for wrestling from a knee. That has to be penalized. Maybe automatically reward an escape when a down wrestler is standing for 5 seconds regardless of the top man’s effort to return him. Then restart in neutral. I’d have to think more about that one.
• Ducking. Award points based on wins. Points are earned based on the strength of their opponent (or the opposing team’s designated ‘starter’). e.g. Ramirez doesn’t want a rematch with David? Fine, but David gets points based on Ramirez’ ranking/value for beating his backup. Then seed based on Total Points accumulated throughout the season. This not only controls ducking, it encourages wrestling a full schedule. No points are lost for losses.
• Challenges. 60 second time limit. Losing an appeal costs a match point or maybe even a team point. Way too many bricks are thrown because a guy is gassed. This ain’t basketball. You don’t get a time out because you’re tired. The better conditioned wrestler shouldn’t be penalized by gamesmanship.

I’ll maybe have more later.

 

[Cyforce]

National tournament on Monday Tuesday Wednesday.

 

[4theheckofit]

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Stalling. We need bigger mats. Yes, that means fewer mats at tournaments but we can adjust. Then, put a 3-5 foot ‘warning track’ around the inner boundary. Any wrestler on the warning track in a neutral non-engaged position for more than five seconds gets a stall warning. Same for wrestling from a knee. That has to be penalized. Maybe automatically reward an escape when a down wrestler is standing for 5 seconds regardless of the top man’s effort to return him. Then restart in neutral. I’d have to think more about that one.
• Ducking. Award points based on wins. Points are earned based on the strength of their opponent (or the opposing team’s designated ‘starter’). e.g. Ramirez doesn’t want a rematch with David? Fine, but David gets points based on Ramirez’ ranking/value for beating his backup. Then seed based on Total Points accumulated throughout the season. This not only controls ducking, it encourages wrestling a full schedule. No points are lost for losses.
• Challenges. 60 second time limit. Losing an appeal costs a match point or maybe even a team point. Way too many bricks are thrown because a guy is gassed. This ain’t basketball. You don’t get a time out because you’re tired. The better conditioned wrestler shouldn’t be penalized by gamesmanship.

I’ll maybe have more later.

I like a lot of it but hate the 5 second standing escape point. Mat returns are a thing and can be used to grab an arm/wrist on return. If the 5 second thing were to be, it'd basically be freestyle, in my opinion.

 

[BryceC]

Just switch to freestyle.

 

[Cyclone Pfan]

1. Build interest in watching...

Media/accessibility. I like to see the little guys get opportunities to broadcast, but there are too many subscription services, they are too hard to find, and they are just too expensive (collectively, but also some of them individually).

Also, better announcers... play by play needs to stay focused and color guy needs to do a better job of educating (either defining the terminology or talking about strategy).

Encourage schools to find more intimate arenas than filling basketball arenas at 1/10 capacity.

More triangular or quadrangulars.

2. More athletes...

Unattached wrestlers. Not sure how to phrase this, but if there were wrestlers that self organized at (D1) schools that don't offer wrestling, let them compete in open tournaments and NCAA.

Higher scholarship limits.

Encourage schools to hold a "JV" meet ahead of the varsity meet.

3. Standardize the product
Better referee training and standardize calls (which would also be mandatory training for coaches as well). Institute a "reporting" hotline when refs are out of line. Keep metrics and promote good refs (better pay and higher profile meets).

Reviews are done by a different ref than the ones calling the match.

4. scoring
Reverse should be scored as same amount of points as an escape and takedown.

No riding time unless it came as part of a takedown.

Cant win a match without a takedown.

OTs always start in neutral. Better tank wins.

 

[singsing]

The entire broadcasting and coverage of it. Information and sites covering college wrestling absolutely suck! Camera angles are getting better but usually suck. Love it when a good move is going on and an official steps in view. I do like the new 3 point takedown rule. Stalling and edge of the mat stuff needs some work. I'd like to see a point awarded to the wrestler who wasn't retreating off the mat if it's returned to center.

 

[Yellow Snow]

Just switch to freestyle.

Amen. Just do it and get it over with.

 

[benman82]

Make the refs verbally shout out "stall one, stall two, stall three" before awarding a stall. Also, get rid of stalls while riding on the ground. If the guy on bottom can't get to his feet then he can wait until the end of the period.

 

[Mead For My Horses]

Make the refs verbally shout out "stall one, stall two, stall three" before awarding a stall. Also, get rid of stalls while riding on the ground. If the guy on bottom can't get to his feet then he can wait until the end of the period.

I like that stall warning 'warning' idea. Would result in more aggressive wrestling quicker and eliminate the 'out of nowhere' stall calls.

 

[Mead For My Horses]

No. If wrestling gets pushed to mid April, I am probably done going to Nationals. Farming has to be the priority.

Except for that, though, I think I like this idea. Maybe do the open tournaments in December and start a more concentrated dual season in early January. Seems like teams often wrestled 2-3 times per week back in the 'old days'.

 

[Mead For My Horses]

Just switch to freestyle.

I might be OK with that but the leg lace/gut wrench rolls turn me off.

 

[LivntheCyLife]

I'm just a casual fan but I'd make big changes to the NCAA championships. Since that seems to be all most care about, I'd stretch it out through the second half of the season and expand it. One three day event is just too short and condensed for fans to actively follow, especially during the first round of NCAA basketball.

I'm thinking something like starting with 4 regional tournaments to start the process that start determining seeds and 8 qualifiers per weight that get a bye to the 2nd day of NCAA.
Then 2 satellite events that determine most of the seeding and say 16 qualifiers.

Then in Feb-March, NCAA events for 4 straight Saturdays
1) Last chance tournament for non-qualifiers to fill out the bracket
2) Traditional first day of NCAA tournament
3) 2nd day that culminates in blood round to determine All-Americans
4) Placing matches and finals

I know this might be challenging logistically/financially. And ideally the satellites would assign wrestlers on a s-curve with teammates going to different sites but teams in the different regions could also work but have to figure out how to balance Penn St or other top teams. Duals and early tournaments would still be used to determine placement in the NCAA satellite events but with more opportunity to wrestle in the NCAA championships, outside seeding becomes less important and hopefully reduces the amount of ducking. And having a bigger tournament control matchups, you see more top guys wrestle each other.

You just can't have a system where something like O'Toole/Mesenbrink or countless other matchups never happen. And you need time for coverage/media to hype the next big matchups. It just all happens too fast at the NCAAs.

 

[Nolaeer]

I'm not anywhere close to knowledgeable, but from a TV watcher perspective:

1. Coaches should not be able to throw a brick and stop a match. He should be given 1 "request to review" per tourney, and the refs should be able to ignore it.

2. too much strategy in winning by relying on edge of match and the other guy's mistakes rather than creating your own offense. I think refs should be able to award at least 2 points per round for "aggression" if one wrestler is trying to wrestle, and the other is just avoiding.

3. Mat cast is nice--it has every match. But even on ESPN TV network, the scores of matches not being shown should be on a scroll. I think march madness has a much better viewer experience bc every single game is on netwotk tv and has announcers. As commissioner, id force ESPN's hand or move to another network.

 

[csteve]

You've just been named the first commissioner of college wrestling. Your job is to fix it. What do you do?

Everything is on the table within the big picture structure of college athletics, so we're talking about on the mat rules changes, making duals relevant again, ducking, seeding, stalling, refereeing, etc.

Off the table is transfer rules since every sport is dealing with that.

I've got ideas but I want to hear yours. You have 6 months to fix it, so get thinking and get creative.

Rules Changes - stalling

• Stalling top man - call stalling when not attempting a pinning combination or is riding parallel for more than 8 seconds
• Stalling bottom man - call stalling when top man is not parallel and he is not attempting to improve his position to escape/reverse
• Stalling on the feet - call stalling if wrestling from a knee for more than 5 seconds
• Stalling on the feet - if wrestlers are out of the center circle, call stalling on the wrestler if his backside is to the boundary for more than 5 seconds

Rules Changes - scoring

• Reversal - change to 3 points
• Near-fall - Remove the 3-point near-fall (it is too subjective to how fast the official counts)
• Takedown - keep the 3-point TD, but remove reaction time. When you reach TD criteria, it should be immediately scored.

Rules Changes - season schedule

• Start season two weeks earlier so that wrestling Nationals start on the 1st Thursday in March. This would end the tournament the weekend prior to the major basketball conference tournaments.
• Move completion of regular season to last Sunday in January.
• Start National Duals on first weekend in February consisting of the top 32 ranked teams. Round of 32 and round of 16 take place on the first weekend at highest ranked team's home arena. The second weekend of February would be for the quarters, semis, and finals at a neutral site. Teams not in the tourney can choose to schedule another non-qualifier during this time.
• Schedule wrestling qualifying tournaments on the third weekend in February.

Rules Changes - Nationals scoring

• National Duals scoring results are the starting points for the NCAA Championships
  • Placement scoring the same as the NCAA individual placement scoring (16,12,10,9,7,6,4,3)
  • Advancement scoring the same as the NCAA individual scoring (1 for championship bracket)
  • Bonus scoring for each dual
    • win 7 individual matches = 1 point
    • win 8 individual matches = 1.5 points
    • win 9 or 10 individual matches = 2 points

 

[247cy]

Wrestling needs the ability for personalities to make the matches mean more than they do now. "It's just another dual" until it's not. There's a reason why UFC cards attract eyeballs (some more than others) - it's the personalities at the top of the card. Someone got loose promoting a fight and people tune in to see if they can walk the walk. If the sport wants to stay relevant in the 'combat sports' genre, increase TV $/exposure, and convert casual fans, they need to borrow a page from Dana White or even pro "wrestling" to stoke the rooting interest.

 

[247cy]

Oh, and don't book your premiere tournament against one of the largest sporting events in the world. Adjust the calendar so NCAAs fall before March Madness, right after, or conclude the Wednesday between the first and second weekends.

 

[buf87]

I do think that seeding seemed to punish wrestlers that didn't do well in the qualifying tournament and ones that didn't have enough matches to get an RPI or defaulted out of the qualifying tournaments. The lack of these 3 seem to hurt wrestlers seed more than in the past. Am I right or is it just my imagination?

If RPI did affect seeding, go back to 17 matches for an RPI instead of 15. I think last year the required number of matches for an RPI was dropped to 15 from 17 or 18. Am I correct on this?

 

[Mead For My Horses]

Somebody (jokingly I think) mentioned cages. Another mentioned scoring by rounds like boxing. David's post match interview got me thinking. He talked about his style as being more 'finesse' based.

I've been trying to compare our sport to boxing. Nobody whined (much) when Muhammad Ali danced and avoided direct contact with Frazier, Liston and Foreman. He's still one of the all time greats and could score in flurries. But he was in a small ring and could be cornered with good footwork and quickness by his opponent.

This is a big stretch, but could wrestling do something similar? It would eliminate just about all stalling issues and set up great matchups of differing styles. Imagine Cody vs Lewan confined to a small space. Or David looking for his opening while avoiding Messenbrink's bullrush. Could be fun!

 

[Cycsk]

There are some really interesting recommendations here. Is there a group that is taking seriously proposals for rule changes?