WRESTLING AT UT?
This got way too long....
This topic comes up every so often, so I thought I would revisit it. If ever there was an opportune time for UT to consider a D-I wrestling program, now would be that time. The MAC currently has 15 members, (most are affiliate members for wrestling only), but the MAC will likely provide close to the 3rd most wrestlers in the NCAA tourney in 2020
Also to consider is the fact that many very talented wrestlers are ending up without full scholarships (that is usually the case unless the wrestler is in the category of "5-star blue chipper, can't miss, junior Olympian caliber" (you get the idea). Teams can only offer 9.9 scholarships (not joking) - on a roster of 10 weight classes. That means back-ups and starters alike are only on partial scholarships. We could offer the second tier blue chippers full rides to get them to UT. Or we could easily fill a team just from transfers where guys are sitting out behind a newly recruited 5-star, blue chipper.... You do see a lot of guys going to the high academic schools in the East or to the military academies. More on that and the cost they take on as a separate topic.
Also consider that the recruiting reach does not need to be that far. So far, 42 Ohio high school wrestlers have committed to wrestle in college at predominantly D-I schools. Pa. has 63, Illinois 22, Michigan 15, Iowa 14, Indiana 10. That's 166 wrestlers going to college to wrestle within a radius of about 400 miles. Compare that to New Jersey 28, Calif. 23, New York 12, Florida 11, Missouri 11, (85 in total with no other states having more than 10). From a recruiting standpoint, we are pretty much in the center of the hotbed of wrestling. Toledo used to be considered one of the centers of international wrestling thanks to Scalzo, Torio, Wilson, Wojo, and others. There were a total of 17 World Cup tourneys held in Toledo at the Field House and Centennial Hall (prior to renaming to Savage). None since 1991, about the same time as Title IX hit and UT dropped wrestling. (Final season was 1993 or '94).
Toledo has also had NCAA finalists 7 times, and won the NCAA title 2 times (Wojo and Lanzi) Dick Wilson finished 2nd an incredible 3 times, and lost the title one of those years on the now defunct referee's criteria (a subjective measure by the ref as to who was the most aggressive of the two wrestlers in a tied match after overtime). Toledo also has had 22 All-Americans over the years, many coming from the Toledo area. 18 of those All-Americans finished in the top 4. No other sport at Toledo has had that level of success.
There are sports that probably should be dropped, simply because UT has never proven to be competitive in them - and likely that cost more money than wrestling.
Why not take this into consideration now? It seems the MAC is taking very positive steps to launch the conference further into one of the Top 3 to 5 conferences in the country. Why should Toledo not be among those teams? Under the new alignment with 15 teams, the MAC would have sent 48 wrestlers to the NCAA championships last year - that would be 4th most in the nation behind Big 10 (14 teams for 89 total), Big 12 (12 teams for 61 total), and the EIWA (17 teams for 54 total).
There is also a head coach consideration that would be a great fit for UT - Ross Thatcher. Not sure how viable it would be, but it is possible he would be interested. He would have an immediate impact on recruiting high caliber wrestlers to UT. He was a 2x state champ. in Ohio, wrestled in college at Penn State, wrestled internationally, and was an assistant at OSU when they won the NCAA title in 2015. My nephew's son wrestled for him in a couple of tourneys in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and had some practices with him at the ORTC in Columbus. His draw would not only be in Ohio, but also Pa. - and that would be the "honeypot" for recruiting. Of the 330 qualifiers for the 2019 NCAA tournament, 40% (128 wrestlers) came from Pa, Ohio, Mich., Indiana, and Illinois alone. New Jersey and New York are not that far away, and if those were added in, along with neighboring Kentucky's 2 qualifiers you would have 51.5% of all qualifiers from those 8 states alone.
Something to think about...
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2020 04:41 PM by MotoRocket.)
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