Proposal Advances
Willie Saylor, Editor

The game-changing proposal that aims to move the crowning of the National Division I Champions from the winners of the individual tournament (as has been the case sisnce the inception of college wrestling) to the winners of National Duals, garnered a majority vote on Sunday. The measure will now go up for consideration before the NCAA at their Championship Cabinet Meeting which begins Monday.

In what has been a circuitous process, the last hurdle may have come in today's vote. To get to the Cabinet, the proposal needed a simple majority from the nation's 77 DI Head Coaches. It received 39 affirmatives.

From the indications I recieved in being present at the NWCA Coaches Convention last month in Ft. Lauderdale, the proposal should be a shoe-in now that it's at this stage.

The NCAA Wrestling Committee had three members in Florida, all of whom promoted the proposal and lobbied the coaches in attendance for support of the measure.

Here is the memo from the NWCA regarding the vote:


To: DI Wrestling Coaches
Fr: NWCA President Rob Koll on behalf of NWCA Board of Directors 
Re: Vote on National Duals Proposal

On behalf of the NWCA Board of Directors, I want to thank everyone for sharing your thoughts and concerns regarding the National Duals proposal over the past 4 weeks or so. All 77 DI head wrestling coaches did vote and the results are as follows:

39 in favor of moving forward with the National Duals proposal
36 opposed
2 abstained

Please know we have listened closely to all concerns and they have been communicated to the NCAA Wrestling Committee (the committee that will shepherd the National Duals proposal to NCAA Championships Cabinet for review on September 11). In light of the recent DI coaches affirmative vote, we are going to maintain the NWCA's endorsement of the proposal but we will be sure to communicate the recurring concerns that many of you have expressed so they can be considered by the Championship Cabinet. 

This National Duals proposal still has a long way to go before anything is finalized. It will championed by the NCAA Wrestling Committee and NCAA staff members from this point going forward and will be thoroughly reviewed and discussed by conference commissioners, athletic administrators, NCAA staff members, and ultimately a group of Presidents. This vetting process takes time and I believe whatever the outcome might be, it is clear that many more coaches now understand the importance of being much more involved with the NWCA initiatives, our Board of Directors, and our committee infrastructure. In fact, I will do everything possible to facilitate an initial meeting with all DI coaches in Chicago (October 23/24 assuming that works with everyone's schedule) so we can begin talking about wrestling challenges, committee assignments, and so forth. 

In summary, our sport has many challenges in front of it. Now, more than ever, we need to be united and committed to rolling up our sleeves to develop viable solutions to our sport's greatest threats. I will communicate back to everyone with an update of what happens at the Championship Cabinet meeting next week.