Brian Smith - All For The National Duals Change

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Uploaded by Johnny Pepper | August 23, 2012

There is a very big issue facing college wrestling right now. There has been a proposal to make it so that there is a switch from the individual NCAA tournament to the National Duals deciding the NCAA team champions. Brian Smith is very much in favor of the change because he feels that this will give college wrestling more exposure (two major events on ESPN) and it will create more interest non-wrestling fans who do associate with a certain team or college.

Speakers: Brian Smith

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18 comments

lewish 8 months ago

No brainer somes it up.

Anonymous Coward 8 months ago

Great points and excellent interview. It is detrimental to our sport not to try a change. If it fails, we can always go back. But if we don't try, we ail never know if it would help.

Anonymous Coward 8 months ago

i feel like all the people making comments didnt even listen to the whole interview.....why wouldnt you want to have to major events covered by espn? From what he is saying they will still have a team champion with the individual tournament. I think it would make for a great opportunity for more wrestling coverage. Its crazy how people are so afraid change.

Cliff Fretwell 8 months ago

This actually swayed me a little bit.

John L 9 months ago

MD, I think between the four regionals and final the Nat Duals last year had close to 15K total in the stands. Somewhere close. Most of those fans were local and not attending the D1 Finals in March. It is stated that there are 100,000 fams at the D1 toourney in March. Its actually 15-20,000 fans at five sessions. Not 100,000 individual fans.

John L 9 months ago

Feel its a great idea to bring more attention to wrestling. Typically the majority of the same people attend the individual tourney each year. This would place others in the stands that wouldn't in March with local travel. Also, the TV exposure on another date is huge. The casual fan also gets to roott for his school and bring attention on national TV that wouldn't otherwise. You would think that ESPN has a better sense for what is attractive to viewers and worth their effort that you or I? Also, the NCAA wouldn't want to invest in a loser.

As for the opportunity of saving D1 wrestling. Who knows? One thing is for certain, todays' model is not working. Doing the same will most likely result in 40-50 teams at the tourney and a smaller crowd in 10-20 years. How meaningfull is it to win the championships with 77 teams compared to 300 years ago? What about when there is less than 20 like gymnastics. Unless we continue to get younger kids wrestling in college, less will be in the stands when our elders die off.
Coach Smith makes a great point in that in others sports decisions they don't leave it up to the competing coaches. Most coaches won't change. Would the college coaches in BB and FB have games during the week at all hours? No, their Presidents and leaders would.
Lastly, doing nothing and changing things is not an attractive option. Don't just be disagreeable, offer a solution other than staying the same failing course.

twilly 9 months ago

Nothing really changes, except the NCAA will hand out the Dual title rather than the NWCA. And then the NWCA may have to award the individual team title, if the NCAA doesn't have two titles. I think the only way the National Duals will bring big interest is if the coaches go for broke and bump NCAA champs up a weight to beat another NCAA champ, and strategic moves like that to win duals. If they do the opposite and move top guys away from each other, it will kill the interest among us fans. If McDounough moved up a weight to wrestle Steiber or Oliver, everyone would be talking about that for weeks.

Joel Caruso 9 months ago

I like the dual format and having the dual championship......but not at the costs of the NCAA tourney team Championships. Why can't they have both. Our district has both a dual team champion and a district tourney championship.....and 2 different teams won. Best Idea, would to have both.

IndyRR 9 months ago

It's a no brainer and a great opportunity for wrestling. I followed the NDs in depth for the first time last year, and it was exciting, there were great rivalries, great storylines, great upsets, etc. Just the sort of TEAM stuff fans love to follow. And that was with hard to follow, minimal, below mediocre coverage. Imagine how good this could be with ESPN and the NCAAs doing it. Remember, too, that February is a dead zone in the NCAA sports calendar, unlike March, which is loaded. The individual tournament will only grow as a result of the coverage in February. But to make this good, something big has to be on the line. Why NOT award the team title this way? What was the most compelling match at last year's NCAAs? Oliver vs. Stieber. Did that have anything to do with the team race? Not at all. In fact, the team race was already over at that point. Did people not watch because of that? Come on. Of course they did. It's wrestling, and wrestling fans will turn on ESPN whenever it's on, especially in March.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

I like the idea, I think it will help the sport grow, not kill little programs. I feel a duel is a better determination of the best team. If you have 2 or 3 great wrestlers you can place higher than a team that has more well rounded ind. crowning a duel champ and ind team champ would be a good idea too.

Austin Torres 9 months ago

Listen to 8:10 to 9:00 and it will explain why we should do things. We need to make plans to grow.. not fall. listen to what he has to say. Our sport will die if we dont change. this is a great idea to Possibly take our sport to a prosperous sport

cawrestlingfan 9 months ago

This is a great way to get rid of small programs. Its great seeing teams like Cal Bakersfield, ASU ect that dont have the best teams but enough individuals to place high. Its a way to boost BIG 10 placements since they cant beat Penn State in the individual tournament they will change format. Ok kids since your not good enough to perform on your own we will make you winners with help of your team mates. If it comes down getting rid of the individual tournament this is a bad idea. But also take the approach football and other sports have and how about the risk of injury so late in the season.
Why not promote the National Duals the way they are instead of watering down the individual tournament ? He is talking about taking the trophy from event and giving it another tournament. Isnt that more of what we are already doing?

Troy 9 months ago

Have the dual tournament and also a champion determined by the individual tournament points. Many states do this for high school.

Wrastler 150 9 months ago

Stupid idea. Not very well thought out. Ruining one tournament for the sake of another is not very smart.

PA 9 months ago

of course Smith is for the change, this is the only way he will ever win a national title.

Matt 9 months ago

Here's a thought. Move the National Tournament to February so we are not overshadowed by March Madness. Start the season earlier and end earlier.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

Very good interview. Now, get Cael Sanderson to do the same with his views. He has been quite vocal that he is opposed to this change. I, for one, would like to hear his reasoning for being against it.

MD 9 months ago

You have to keep scoring at the individual tournament too, Have a national dual champion and the Individual team title also. The dual tournament will never bring as much exposure to wrestling compared to the individual tournament. Over 100k fans attend Nationals, how many were at the National duals? 1,500? Wrestling is an individual sport 1st, team sport 2nd. Always will be.