Thursday, March 14, 2019

State of Emergency: Protecting Seeds

Wise individuals often give the advice that one should not discuss a problem unless they can properly address it with a solution. Perhaps that is so, but despite not having a perfect solution, seed protection is too big of a problem in NCAA Division I wrestling for me to ignore. 

It's horrible for the sport in a variety of different ways for a variety of different reasons.  First and foremost it kills the sport from a spectator perspective.  Fans want to see the marquee matches. People have whined and moaned about the popularity of professional wrestling for decades. Cried about how unfair and unjust it is that millions of people tune in each week to watch "that fake rasslin' crap" while amateur wrestling to this day still has to fight for television coverage.  Well let me tell you something you may or may not need to hear.  If Hulk Hogan would've medical forfeited to Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III to protect his championship, WWE probably wouldn't be around today.

Now you can make whatever you want to out of my statement, but it holds true.  Fans come to duals and tournaments excited to see highly ranked wrestlers go at it.  If you don't think it hurts amateur wrestling's popularity when a wrestler sits out a dual or MFF's at a tournament, you're only fooling yourself.   Highly anticipated matches are fun and exciting and they generate hype.  They put butts into seats and amateur wrestling would be doing itself a favor by becoming self aware of that fact.   When people turn the station to ESPN or the BIG 10 network and they see the #1 Vs the #2 kid step out onto the mat, they sit and watch with undivided attention.  When they turn on the TV and the #2 kid steps out onto the mat and gets his hand raised in a MFF or ends up wrestling the backup, they change the channel in frustration.  Protecting seeds isn't a way to grow wrestling from a spectator standpoint. If anything, it's a way to kill it.

Yet it works. To state the obvious and that's why coaches do it.  Looking at the conference seedings and now the NCAA seedings it's obvious that sitting your wrestlers in duals and MFF'ing them out in tournaments will work to their advantage.  It'll get them a higher seed, which means an easier road to a higher finish.  As long as the formula is set up to work this way, then it's a problem we're going to have year in and year out. 

And the unfairness of it ought to at least have the amateur wrestling community concerned enough to at least contemplate the idea of fixing it. 

I have an idea.  Actually I have two.

A - Medical Forfeits should count as losses. 

When you medical forfeit at a tournament, I believe that it ought to count as a loss to the opponent you are medical forfeiting against.  For example Shakur Rasheed Medical Forfeited his match against Myles Martin of Ohio State.  That ought to count as a loss to Martin for Rasheed.  All of the matches Micic forfeited at the BIG 10's, again counted as losses.  If medical forfeits are counted against you, then you're going to wrestle when you can. If you're legit banged up, yeah that sucks but injuries have always been a part of the sport.  The kids who step out onto the mat and compete, are the ones that should be rewarded. Not the ones who don't.

B - A win over the team should count as a win over the starter. 

Here's where I'm going to boil a lot of blood and maybe lose a couple of friends.  Let me explain what I mean.  When Northwestern dualed  Iowa on January 27th in Iowa City, Sebastian Rivera defeated Iowa backup Perez Perez 11-1.  What I am saying is that the win for Rivera should count when going into both the BIG 10's and the NCAA tournament.  He defeated Lee at the Midlands. So when going into the BIG 10's, his record should indicate that he defeated Iowa twice.  Two wins against Iowa.  Now that he defeated Lee at the BIG 10's, three wins. 

It begs the question what if at a tournament, like the Midlands, a team has more than one wrestler in the bracket?  So for example, what if at the Midlands, Rivera had to face both Perez and Lee?  Good question and it has a very simple solution.  At such in season tournaments, the victory counts against the starter.  Which then raises another question.

If victories/losses only count against the starter, what if a team enters wrestlers at a tournament like the Midlands or the Scuffle and neither wrestler entered is the starter at the conference championships?  Now that's an excellent question.  John Doe and Bob Coe enter the Midlands representing University.  Yet at the conference tournament neither Doe or Coe start, Eric Foe represents University.  Now what? Should wins Vs Doe and Coe count?  That I don't know. 

As I said before, I don't have perfect solutions.  Only suggestions.  Yet, this is a huge problem in NCAA Division I wrestling. One that despite not knowing exactly how to fix, I refuse to ignore.

I'm all ears.  Let's discuss how to address this problem. 

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