For the Record: Iowa is Opposed

Watching wrestling be murdered over the past 20+ years by Title IX zealots and week-kneed college administrators, it amazes me that people would oppose this. Here is a hint: The NCAA individual championships will still sell out and will still be the centerpiece for college wrestling. The team championship is irrelevant at the individual championships for two reasons:

1. The team title is rarely, if ever, close.
2. Only the top 2-3 teams care about the team title after day 1
What brings the crowd at nationals is the individual titles, and the fans from everywhere, including the smaller schools, that are there to see their wrestlers have a shot at it. Having the champion named from a national dual tournament can only help bringing attention to more than one event.
Brands and Cael are typical of top wrestling programs only wanting attention on themselves. They do not want, and don't care if schools like VaTech, Boise, Stanford, Duke, NCState, Chattanooga et.al. even survive. One has to assume these coaches want these lesser programs to go away and be the giant fish in the thimble of water wrestling will become if there is not more promotion and marketing done.
I can't believe anyone is claiming things aren't broken considering the decimation of wrestling over the past decades. But keep rooting for Iowa. Soon they'll be competing with the other three teams left in the final four every year.

If all the relevant teams join there will be butts in the seats.. Brands and Sanderson are the ones preventing it as a BIG event.. You cant deny that. Two elite team Coaches act like babys and try and control what isn't thiers to control is the problem. NCAA and NWCA DO NOT work for Brands or Sanderson, They are acting like spoiled little stars that are going to take thier toys and go if they don't get thier way. Hey Cael and Tom... let NWCA NCAA and ESPN do what they do best and you guys just coach your friggin teams. They are trying to stale mate this entire process.. GROW up you guys and do what you do and Coach.. Let the Boards and marketing people show you how it is done.

Keep NCAA tourney as Crowning event...for timing, crowd & "fervor" purposes qualify teams for National Dual Team Tournament then have a 16 team 1 weekend dual tournament to decide Dual Team Champion. 1 weekend same location, 16 of the best college teams with there friends and families same location, stands full, sounds pretty exciting.

The wrestling community is a bunch of idiots... It is like we own chain of a restaurant and all the other chains are shutting down but we think "oh you know well be fine and skate by doing the same thing we always do". Something has to be done people. We as wrestlers are our own worst enemy. We have been given the opportunity to have two nationally televised events and create more revenue for the sport, not to mention, increase fan support and atmosphere at home duals. Every year I hear people complain about how we only get one day on ESPN and sports like the little league world series get several. It is because we are idiots and are afraid of change. We always talk about how the wrestling mentality makes people successful in life. But it will not make us successful if we cant take ourselves out of the wrestling world and apply it to real life. You can't always take the best wrestlers like Brands and Caels opinion on matters like this. Quite frankly they don't know how the real world and the business world work because they have been so caught up in wrestling all their life. I have a lot of respect for them, their dedication and accomplishments but in this given situation they do not know what they are talking about.

i,v been to the national duals and it sucked weak crowd and no thunder.. ncaa tournament sold out, intense with fans lovin it!!!! people get a clue its not gona work...

So Coach Brands is saying attendance has been down. If attendance is down for the duals then how exactly does that equate to more butts in the seats and more revenue? For the duals in the past was the attendance down because no marketing efforts were made? No.

Not saying the current format is perfect, but it DOES work. If the NCAA makes a change, they risk an awful lot for a tournament that has rather lacked luster in my opinion. the national duals is just a concept that people are not accustomed to yet, and does not draw the fans that it needs to keep people interested in wrestling. The NCAA tournament is the greatest spectacle in Folkstyle wrestling each and every year. this change will without a doubt deflate it a considerable amount. not to say the idea cant work, but it is just too soon of a change for something that hasnt proven its worth yet

lol.. fair enough.. sorry

no.. whatas your problem.. Rock said EXACTLY what I said.. only a little more tact

No: People in seats is what is going to keep our great sport alive. It is the attitude of people like you that is destroying our sport; like it is some private little clique that only a few are special enough to be a part of. If you truly love our sport and understand it you will understand that the more people who wrestle the better off we are as a country and as a species. It builds the qualities in an individual which we should hope for more to have. And, the more attention we get, the more people in seats, the more participating in our great sport, then the better off we will be as a population!

In response to.. no.. Are you on crack or really that dumb? People in seats equal money for the program. People in the seats equal someone that has never seen wrestling before encouraging his kid to wrestle. People in the seats equal more wrestlers on a team. People in the seats equal more teams every year instead of programs getting dropped. The NWCA has an entire program geared towards marketing wrestling. We need more people exposed to wrestling. God bless Beat The Streets and all they do. Times Square last year was awesome I bet there were 10k people that saw their very first wrestling match that day. It's time we all concentrate on marketing our programs and educating our school administrators. Wrestling is a money maker for any High School. You can make more money having two youth/biddy tournaments a year than a million bake sales. You want to make money for your high School Athletic program? Fill your basketball court with wrestling mats and have a youth tournament then count all your $$ your AD will love you.

Coach Brands - let me introduce the work "than" to your vocabulary. It is used in comparison between two statements. The word "then" is used when describing a sequence in time. Other than that, then I agree with your position on crowning a team champion.

why all of the sudden has wrestling become all about attracting fans? the whole glory of wrestling is because we wrestle because we want to wrestle. we love it. we don't care about fame and popularity. the commentor who said football knows who to attract fans: that is our example of what not to do. football grew so much in popularity, that now it is all about the money and the fame. all of the athletes are stuck up selfish street thugs who gain no knowledge of life from their sport. as wrestlers, we don't care about attracting more fans.. if you're wrestling for popularity or fame you're wrestling for the wrong reason.. the wrestling world is great how it is. we got a whole community of kids who love the sport. love it. kids who train endless nights in back garages. we dont want to become so public and popular, because it will eventually be our downfall, like football and basketball. theres nothing wrong with high school or college wrestling how it is

Great, Tom, so we'll just continue our one day/year our all-star (NCAA) tournament on ESPN and hope for the best. Most of the time, the team champion doesn't even qualify all 10 wrestlers. It's almost silly to even keep team score when entire teams aren't present.

As it stands now, dual meets are meaningless and everyone knows it. Of course nobody cares about them, because they're forgotten the next day. If by some miracle this passes, and dual meets actually become important, you will see more and more fans turn out. Teams will be fighting hard to win their conference and get into the national team tournament, and they will continue to fight to make it to the final 8 and win a national title.

The suggestion to have the duals after the individual tournament, consisting of the top 8 or 16 teams at the tournament sounds good in theory, but will fail miserably. Iowa tried this in high school and the dual tournament never reached the same popularity. Mostly because of the let down of wrestlers after the individual tournament. They need a break and don't compete at the same intensity.