Why UALR should host their 2020 Conference Championships

What we do know is that The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will have a Division I varsity wrestling team in the 2019-2020 season.   What we don't know is what conference UALR will belong to.  Rumors speculate the Southern Conference, along with the eight other teams in the conference might be the new how for the Trojans, although their is also talk about UALR becoming the 13th member of the BIG 12.

What we wrestling fans are used to seeing is instances like the horrific news we recently received about the Eagles of Eastern Michigan dropping their wrestling program. We've seen so many of our beloved programs get the ax over the past 50 years that we've almost become cynical if not at least accustomed to it.  The addition of UALR as well as Presbyterian College to Division I, is borderline surreal but very welcomed.

And that's why UALR whether they're in the Southern Conference or in the BIG 12 should host the 2020 conference championships.

We often like to look at wrestling from the inside out, but in terms of growing wrestling's popularity this is a case where we need to look at it from the outside in. College athletics has all become a business. It's about putting butts in seats. If we know right now that UALR is going to host the 2020 Southern Conference or BIG 12 (depending on where they end up) there is no reason at all why we shouldn't fill all 5,600 seats of the Jack Stephen's Center in Little Rock.  In all sense of reality, no reason why we couldn't fill all 7,150 seats of Barton Coliseum.  Be fun to be overly optimistic and think we could even get all 18,000 seats of the Verizon Arena filled.

We want UALR to feel that they made the right decision to add wrestling to their varsity sports. We want other schools to look at what UALR and Presbyterian College are doing and feel that they too should add wrestling to their varsity sports.

I say a good move in doing this is to have UALR host their conference championships, and fill those seats.  Show the school, the athletic director, the president, the administration, and UALR itself that they made the right decision.