JT#1's Proposal for New Structure to NCAA DI Season (All other Divisions could follow similar)

 Here's currently what the season looks like...


We start last two weeks of October & we end on the third week of March.  

That gives us a 20 week season (1 week is off currently in between qualifiers & national tournament) 

So give or take, it approximately looks like this...

Last two weeks of October -  Lots of Opens 
First three weeks of November - Duals
Last week of November - CKLV + Duals for non CKLV participating teams
First week of December - duals
2nd week of December - Reno + Duals
3rd week of December - Duals
4th week of December/1st week of January - Scuffle/Midlands/Salute + duals for teams not participating
2nd week of January through all of February - All duals
1st week of March - Qualifiers
2nd week of March - Off
3rd week of March - National tournament

I average that out of our 80 NCAA Division I teams, most have between 15-20 duals per season.  I think a low is 12 & a high is 23 from what I've seen.  

Wrestlers if they're wrestling every match available to them are averaging between 30 to 40 matches per season.  I've seen some that have close to 50. 


This is the season as it is & with the current system we have the following problems....


Wrestlers getting hurt & injured - It is so difficult to stay healthy in a sport that last nearly half a year.  20 weeks of the grind is hard on the body. Knees, shoulders, elbows, backs, ect....it is not easy to be & stay 100%.  Which in turn leads to other issues....

Wrestlers sitting out matches - Yes, we do sometimes have coaches sitting perfectly healthy wrestlers in order to protect rankings/future seeds.  Other times though, a wrestler is being sat for health reasons.  No use going out their on a bum knee or with an injured shoulder, risking further injury.  We are wanting to keep our guys healthy for the qualifiers & the national tournament.  Yet this is posing a problem when in a dual that's supposed to feature 5 marquee matches, ends up featuring none.  


I think the season is too long and I think shortening it could help solve a lot of these issues. 

I also propose having more rest & time to recoup.  I worry a bit about losing an audience, but I don't think we would.  We already have a week in between qualifiers & the national tournament.  I don't think adding in a week here or there would effect our numbers.  Especially if we made up for it on being 100%/100% on marquee matches in our duals. 


I propose the following....

12 weeks worth of wrestling over three & a half months.  All of January, all of February, all of March, first two weeks of April. 

January all four weeks duals.  Each team has one dual per week.  

Week One of February - Major in season tournament (CKLV & Reno) 
Week Two & Week three of February - Duals at one per week 
Week four of February - Major in season tournament (Scuffle, Midlands & Salute) 

Week one of March - National duals (R1, Q's & SF's) 
Week two of March - National duals (1st & 3rd place matches) 
Week three of March - off
Week four of March - Qualifiers

Week one of April - off
Week two of April - National tournament 


My proposal would see 16 to 20 regular season matches.  Plus 1 to 3 matches for national duals.  Then the post season matches. 

I would figure that each wrestler would get between 25 to 35 matches per season.  Depending of course on W's & L's at tournaments.  


I'm with the idea that wrestling fans would rather see one dual per week featuring ALL of the #'s  Vs seeing 2 to 4 duals per week, when 1/3 of the starters are out with injuries.