(03-06-2019 05:35 PM)pantone1935 Wrote: Impressive. You are right they may not be big names but good wrestling programs. Hopefully we will be well represented hosting in 2020.
GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As of yet un-announced by Steinbrecher, all wrestling matches will be held on either Monday, Tuesday or Thursday evenings with 11 p.m. start times or else Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 5 a.m. in conjunction with the TV contract he's negotiated with ESPN x and the AAF Network.
No offense, but put things in perspective before you exclaim this to be "impressive."
Yes the combined MAC and EWL membership (15) will represent just shy of 20% of the schools still competing at the Division I level thanks to the continual decrease of NCAA participation in the sport. There are 130 some FBS programs compared to the 76 wrestling programs noted in this Wikipedia account:
For the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's wrestling season, 76 schools in the United States sponsor Division I varsity men's wrestling.[1] One school was lost and one added for 2018–19, and three more are scheduled for addition in 2019–20. This list reflects each team's conference affiliation as of the 2018–19 season.
The Big Ten Conference (Big Ten) is the only all-sport conference whose members (14) all compete in wrestling.
The six wrestling schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) are all currently full members of the conference.
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) has three affiliate members in addition to five full members; the MAC had met the requirement for NCAA recognition until one of the six was lost after the 2018-19 season. On March 5, 2019, the seven members of the Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) accepted affiliate membership to the MAC starting in the 2019-2020 season.[2]
The Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) with three full members met the membership requirement by having three affiliate members, but the elimination of Boise State's program drops the Pac-12 to only five members. Unless a new member is soon found (California State University, Fresno is the most likely candidate), loss of the Pac-12's NCAA recognition is probable when considering the history of the Big 12's past membership problem.
The Southern Conference (SoCon) with three full members meets the membership requirement by having four associate members.
The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) is a sixteen-member wrestling-only conference. Six members are also full members of the Ivy League and compete for that conference's dual meet championship during the EIWA season. EIWA member Franklin & Marshall College is the only Division III school competing in Division I wrestling.
The Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) is a seven-member wrestling-only conference. Four of the members compete in Division II in other sports. The EWL will pass into history when the seven current members become affiliate members of the MAC beginning in the 2019–20 season. [2]
The Big 12 Conference (Big 12) had lost its NCAA recognition when wrestling membership fell to only four full member schools, despite the fact that three of those four schools had won a combined 49 NCAA Division I wrestling team titles. On July 29, 2015, the Big 12 announced that the members of the Western Wrestling Conference (which had six members but it was not recognized by the NCAA) had been accepted as affiliate members of the Big 12, increasing the number of participating schools to ten and restoring the conference's automatic bids. The Big 12 has since added two more wrestling members.