I dont believe there is actually a team tournament. For someone like me who has very little knowledge on the sport, can you explain this to me?
How does a team win a NC in Wrestling?
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
The wrestling NCAA championships happen every March. The team champion is decided by the points scored by each wrestler for any given team. The points are given by the place( 1st, 2nd etc) each wrestler finishes, points for winning each Match and bonus points for pins and major decisions. Those points are totaled up and the team with the most points wins. It is important for a team to have as many wrestlers qualify as possible and have good wrestlers at many different weight classes.
I have seen several sports about growing the sport.
I can tell you this from the perspective of somebody who has never been to a wrestling meet and has never watched the NCAA championships:
If there was a bracketed team tournament, I personally, would be more interested in the sport. Call it the "March Madnessization" of sports, but a casual fan like me needs to have this in order to be interested. I dont know enough about any of the Pitt wrestlers to follow them personally. I can follow the Pitt team as a whole though and know that say if we won the ACC bracketed tournament, we would land a #2 seed in the East with a good shot to make it to the Final Four that year.
I dont know anything about the sport as you can tell from my question. It seems like it has a nice niche fanbase but if it wants to win more casual fans, I think by not having a team tournament, its leaving a lot on the table.
And forget casual fans for a second, wouldnt diehard wrestling fans like a team tournament? That seems like it would be pretty cool to follow.
It is a bracketed tournament, but it is based on individual advancement. You need top national wrestlers, All-Americans, to advance to the stage where they score points, so it is pretty different than dual meets were you just need a cadre of wrestlers that better than your opponent's wrestlers, not necessarily the very top in the nation at their weight class. Pitt's #8 ranking is based on dual meet scoring, while some of its other rankings where it is in the teens are based on the projected finishes at NCAAs...eg, how many wrestlers do you have that can score points for you at NCAAs and what is your projected score there.
There is a movement in the NCAA to add a dual meet championship component to the current, more individual-heavy national championship scoring format, but I don't know where that proposal is right now.
There is a movement in the NCAA to add a dual meet championship component to the current, more individual-heavy national championship scoring format, but I don't know where that proposal is right now.
Right now it is just talk. Most "top teams" are against a dual meet tournament for the team championship. There is currently a dual meet championship called the "National Duals", but it is not a NCAA event. The top 16 teams are invited, but usually a couple of the top 5 teams do not come. Presently there is talk of making this team event for the NCAA championship. However, the present NCAA championship is a huge event and a big money maker for the NCAA. Although an individual event, the team championship is huge and changing that team championship could have a big difference on the fans coming. I have gone to the last 33 NCAA championships and I know that a change in this event could alter my going.
The bracketed tournament is an individual tournament though, not a team tournament. All it seems like it is is an individual tournament with some scoring system to decide which team had the most wrestlers do well and that team is awarded the title of National Champions. Seems kind of an odd way of determining a National Championship team but like I said, I know nothing about the sport, so I dont mean to be disrespectful. Just seems odd like that NASCAR scoring system.......which again I dont know anything about.
I wasnt at the Pitt/OKST meet but I read about it. To me, I think that is what the sport is missing. Lets say that's an NCAA Regional Final Meet. The meet goes down to the Heavyweights. Winner take all. Those 2 guys determine whether their team moves on. Now, imagine, one of the wresters is a top guy in the nation and the other is average to below average. How awesome would it be if there was a major upset in a match like that? To me, that's what the sport needs.
This post was edited on 1/28 3:42 PM by Sean Miller Fan
Right, it is really an individual tournament. Not a whole lot different than how track & field or swimming and diving is set up for individual champions where team points are awarded for All-American finishes in order to compile team standings. In T&F, you need only a few studs to place decently at NCAAs or other big invites. Depth through all events isn't nearly important because dual meets have all but disappeared. Luckily, dual meets are still very much alive in wrestling.
I believe track and field, gymnastics, swimming and diving, wrestling and cross-country are the only NCAA sports which don't have team tournaments. However, I think the wrestling is very much a team event even though it isn't dual meet format. If you have been to one, the crowd is vey knowledgeable regarding what is going on in the team standings, and the crowds watching some of the wrestle-back (consolation) matches are huge if those matches happen to feature two wrestlers from teams battling for the team title.
Since you haven't attended an NCAA tourney, if a wrestler loses anywhere before the semis, he goes into the wrestle-backs. Wrestlers who lost in the opening round wrestle each other in the first matches. Then wrestlers who lost in the second round are added, and so on. As long as you keep winning, you keep wrestling. A wrestler who lost in the first round can finish as high as 5th, which is All-American status.
I agree with thom67 in that I would hate to see the present system change. If it did, you would not get to see great wrestlers from non-powerhouse schools: Carleton Hasselrig from Pitt-Johnstown and Wayde Shalles from Clarion, just to name two with local ties. Every year there are great wrestlers from schools like Cal Poly or The Citadel who get a chance to shine in the NCAAs. And it's not like no one follows their matches. If a wrestler from Cal Poly wrestles one from PSU, every fan of another team with national title hopes will be following that match and rooting for the Cal Poly wrestler. It takes some effort to understand the scoring system, which gives premiums for pins and technical falls, but it is a terrific event because there are always great matches going on.
Since you haven't attended an NCAA tourney, if a wrestler loses anywhere before the semis, he goes into the wrestle-backs. Wrestlers who lost in the opening round wrestle each other in the first matches. Then wrestlers who lost in the second round are added, and so on. As long as you keep winning, you keep wrestling. A wrestler who lost in the first round can finish as high as 5th, which is All-American status.
I agree with thom67 in that I would hate to see the present system change. If it did, you would not get to see great wrestlers from non-powerhouse schools: Carleton Hasselrig from Pitt-Johnstown and Wayde Shalles from Clarion, just to name two with local ties. Every year there are great wrestlers from schools like Cal Poly or The Citadel who get a chance to shine in the NCAAs. And it's not like no one follows their matches. If a wrestler from Cal Poly wrestles one from PSU, every fan of another team with national title hopes will be following that match and rooting for the Cal Poly wrestler. It takes some effort to understand the scoring system, which gives premiums for pins and technical falls, but it is a terrific event because there are always great matches going on.
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