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2023 NCAA D-1 Wrestling Tournament starts today

TimmyClutch

TimmyClutch

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Hey Bros,

I know you are all excited about the basketball tournament thats starting, which is cool, but let's talk about the real March Madness for a second. The men's D1 wrestling tournament starts today as well. Here are a couple story lines that may peak your interest:

1. Yianni Diakomihalis and Spencer Lee could become only the 5th and 6th members of the 4x champ club. (Both would be solid bets if you are a gambler)
2. 3 previous NCAA Champs are going to be fighting it out at in one weight class, 165 lbs. I am picking Carr, but rooting for Monday whose father was a gold medalist and is from NC, there is also Stanford's Shane Griffith, the 2021 champ, who is not to be overlooked despite a tough road ahead of him.
3. 3x runner up Daton Fix will have his last chance to be a champion at 133 lbs.
4. Penn State looks to continue its domination as National Champs, but will Iowa sneak in ahead?
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
Lemme guess: Wake missed the tournament in yet another sport !
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Considering uNC, State, Duke, tech, and UVA all have teams, Wake not having one has always stood out to me. The problem is wrestling is universally considered a poor man's sport and doesn't often have advocates at the decision maker level. It also doesn't often have a corresponding women's sport for Title IX purposes. I don't see Wake adding a wrestling team any time soon, but there are plenty of good athletes from the Carolinas that make it to the D-1 level who are worth rooting for.
 
Wake Forest apparently did have a wrestling team for several years at the end of the 1950s. But I have found next to no information about it, except for this blog post about Bill George.

George, a WF football legend and HOF'er, entered the Southern Conference Championships as a HWT, and won it 3X. With no team, no coach, and no formal practicing. Including in 1952 when he was already drafted by the Chicago Bears.

johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com

The Unique Story of Bill George and "Wake Forest Wrestling"

The history of Wake Forest wrestling is rather unique. The school did have an official wrestling program for a short amount of time in the ...
johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com
 
Wrestling and Softball are my top two for sports that Wake should add - Men's and Women's LAX are probably the easiest to add at this point though.
 
Link to ACC Wrestling Record Book

Appears that WF only competed in wrestling from 1957 through 1959. The Deacs finished at the bottom of the ACC each of those years. Clemson competed in wrestling from 1976 through 1995. Early on, Maryland was the dominant ACC program winning every ACC title between 1956 and 1973.

Currently, six ACC schools fund a wrestling program:

NC State (the current ACC power; the Pack has won 5 straight ACC titles)
VT
Pitt
UNC
UVA
Duke (Duke regularly finishes DFL in the ACC in wrestling).
 
w84it said:
Wrestling and Softball are my top two for sports that Wake should add - Men's and Women's LAX are probably the easiest to add at this point though.
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I want all 4 of these as well. There is no chance for softball at this point I don’t think. The other 3 we already have the facilities for so they are a small hope.
 
Thank you for the reminder. I had not yet set my DVR.
 
WF will never add just a men's program in any sport, including wrestling.

WF is in the gray area of Title IX compliance right now because the football program offers 85 ships and there is no female equivalent sport that offers anything like that number of ships. So, WF spends a disproportionate portion of its scholly money on men's sports. That's why schools like VT, Vandy and BC just have a women's lax program or a lot of SEC schools just have a women's soccer program, but no men's program. So, if WF adds any sport (which is doubtful, unless WF falls under Title IX scrutiny), it will be a women's sport like Lax. BTW, there aren't many schools that fund a baseball program, but not a softball program, as that is the women's baseball equivalent. Kind of weird that WF never sponsored softball. The game is becoming increasingly popular.
 
TimmyClutch said:
Considering uNC, State, Duke, tech, and UVA all have teams, Wake not having one has always stood out to me. The problem is wrestling is universally considered a poor man's sport and doesn't often have advocates at the decision maker level. It also doesn't often have a corresponding women's sport for Title IX purposes. I don't see Wake adding a wrestling team any time soon, but there are plenty of good athletes from the Carolinas that make it to the D-1 level who are worth rooting for.
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Women's wrestling is an emerging sport.
 
Pilchard said:
WF will never add just a men's program in any sport, including wrestling.

WF is in the gray area of Title IX compliance right now because the football program offers 85 ships and there is no female equivalent sport that offers anything like that number of ships. So, WF spends a disproportionate portion of its scholly money on men's sports. That's why schools like VT, Vandy and BC just have a women's lax program or a lot of SEC schools just have a women's soccer program, but no men's program. So, if WF adds any sport (which is doubtful, unless WF falls under Title IX scrutiny), it will be a women's sport like Lax. BTW, there aren't many schools that fund a baseball program, but not a softball program, as that is the women's baseball equivalent. Kind of weird that WF never sponsored softball. The game is becoming increasingly popular.
Click to expand...
I’d love to add both lax and softball but I’m not even sure where we’d build a softball stadium.
 
Pilchard said:
WF will never add just a men's program in any sport, including wrestling.

WF is in the gray area of Title IX compliance right now because the football program offers 85 ships and there is no female equivalent sport that offers anything like that number of ships. So, WF spends a disproportionate portion of its scholly money on men's sports. That's why schools like VT, Vandy and BC just have a women's lax program or a lot of SEC schools just have a women's soccer program, but no men's program. So, if WF adds any sport (which is doubtful, unless WF falls under Title IX scrutiny), it will be a women's sport like Lax. BTW, there aren't many schools that fund a baseball program, but not a softball program, as that is the women's baseball equivalent. Kind of weird that WF never sponsored softball. The game is becoming increasingly popular.
Click to expand...
This where donors come in. If you look at private institutes adding sports, usually its because of a donor providing money for one particular sport, as well as adding corresponding financing for a sport for the other gender. So it takes a donor who is willing to provide the money for two sports. Unfortunately for better or worse Wake is focused on donors giving to large revenue producing sports at the moment.

An on-campus basketball arena that seats between 4 and 6 thousand people could also double as a wrestling gym!
 
TimmyClutch said:
This where donors come in. If you look at private institutes adding sports, usually its because of a donor providing money for one particular sport, as well as adding corresponding financing for a sport for the other gender. So it takes a donor who is willing to provide the money for two sports. Unfortunately for better or worse Wake is focused on donors giving to large revenue producing sports at the moment.

An on-campus basketball arena that seats between 4 and 6 thousand people could also double as a wrestling gym!
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Can they also play indoor softball in it?
 
Fun college wrestling fact of the day: In 2018, the 4 Finesilver brothers (2 sets of twins) were all on the Duke wrestling team at the same time.
 
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