Columnist: Wrestling needs to rethink its calendar

[pin2win]

Columnist: Wrestling needs to rethink its calendar

From article:
"I don't like colliding with basketball," said Dan Gable, who coached Iowa to 15 NCAA crowns. "I looked in USA TODAY (Thursday) and I didn't see an article — and that upset me quite a bit. But there were lots of pages of basketball. They even had the big bracket again."

 

[pumpdog20]

Agree, let's move the championships to the second weekend in April.

 

[pin2win]

would you start the season later or just have another 2 weeks?

 

[AHawk1]

The way Iowa currently wrestles why don't they just hook up with a big PolkaFest. They can all hold each others arms and dance around together.

It's the product as much as it is the timing. I'm a huge Hawk wrestling fan and I didn't drink the kook-aid as Pin describes it. They need to find someone who can teach some technique and develop scoring opportunities because it's not currently happening.

 

[pin2win]

I picked 2 finalist and if evans would of beat Storley we would of had 3 finalists

 

[IowaTeddy]

Just a side note here...

I'm a middle of the road wrestling fan. I enjoy the sport, follow the hawks somewhat, but as an Iowa fan in general, my devotion to wrestling is greater than it would be if I were a fan of a different team. I am not a diehard.

I went to one session of the NCAAs and watched about 4 hours of wrestling and then watched another 2 sessions on ESPNU.

To me, it was VERY boring. The way the sport has evolved, you see entire matches where nothing happens, no moves, no attacks, no offensive wrestling. I watched the DSJ match on TV and I was into it for the reason that it was Iowa and I wanted to see the hawks do well. But what a boring match! That was about 7 minutes or however long, and nothing really happened. No one went for a takedown.

And that match was actually pretty exciting compared to many others. To me, an average fan, the sport is not entertaining. I think this is the big problem. In terms of the Olympic thing, I think they should keep wrestling and it shows how corrupt the whole thing is that they might drop it. But the sport needs to become watchable.

 

[pin2win]

Teddy I think the sport has changed in the last 5 years and it has to deal with a ref not calling stalling. When was the last time we saw a double stall when a match was getting boring? Those used to happen all the time and made the match a lot more interesting

 

[AHawk1]

Teddy I think the sport has changed in the last 5 years and it has to deal with a ref not calling stalling. When was the last time we saw a double stall when a match was getting boring? Those used to happen all the time and made the match a lot more interesting

You happy with the way Iowa wrestles currently?

 

[pin2win]

hell no I'm not happy with iowa but he is talking about the sport in general

 

[AHawk1]

Well Iowa, unfortunately is the leader in boredom and as I said earlier it's not timing it's the product currently.

 

[CRlightweight]

I picked 2 finalist and if evans would of beat Storley we would of had 3 finalists

Pin you're waaaaay more confident that Evans would've beat Brown in the semis than me. Brown was wrestling awesome down the stretch. Evans was not.

 

[fuldose]

would you start the season later or just have another 2 weeks?

I would extend the season by a couple of weeks. I don't think that a couple of extra duals would hurt anybody. It would be nice to wrestle a couple more big ten teams during the dual season.

 

[AFHawk86]

Start the season later and conclude in April!!

 

[CRlightweight]

I would extend the season by a couple of weeks. I don't think that a couple of extra duals would hurt anybody. It would be nice to wrestle a couple more big ten teams during the dual season.

as a spectator yes, as an athlete/coach no. I know for a fact most coaches would prefer the season does not get extended. many would say shortened. i'm fine with how it's run right now. we've gotten more and more coverage by ESPN each year. i don't think moving away from basketball would increase that much attention to our sport. Wrestling is not a super popular sport. i really don't think it'd garner that much more attention moving it back two weeks or even a month. but that's just my opinion.

 

[1hawkeye1]

Teddy I think the sport has changed in the last 5 years and it has to deal with a ref not calling stalling. When was the last time we saw a double stall when a match was getting boring? Those used to happen all the time and made the match a lot more interesting

Refs can't even get wrestling right?

Agree with some of the above posters. I'm a very casual wrestling fan. Will watch iowa when available. But some of these matches are just brutally boring. Like watching Wisconsin basketball. Needs more shots, more offense.

 

[thejumper5]

As someone who only casually follows wrestling and only watched 3 matches on ESPN (Hawks and Dake/Taylor), here's my perspective:

If the season is going to be moved, it should be moved up to start sooner and end in the middle of February. Moving it back would just make it conflict with different sporting events, namely the start of the MLB season and the NBA playoffs. Moving it up so it tucks in between the Super Bowl and the NCAA basketball tournament as the premiere major sporting event might be the way to go. On the other hand, once every four years the Winter Olympics would outshine wrestling.

All in all, the season is fine where it is. It has its fans and will probably be out-shined by most any other "major" sporting event it gets put up against.