When the Rutgers wrestling schedule was announced for the 2021 – 22 season, one early season dual meet on the schedule made this year’s slate for Rutgers wrestling seem a bit different. It usually is not until the New Year where Rutgers finds themselves tested in team competition, as that is when Big Ten conference dual meets begin. Traditionally, Rutgers will ease into the season with lesser competition, and a couple of individual tournaments.
However, Rutgers had a nationally ranked University of North Carolina team on their schedule for November 27th at the Prudential Center, in the heavily promoted “Garden State Grapple”. The event featured the Big Ten’s Rutgers and Wisconsin squaring off with North Carolina and Hofstra.
Hofstra does have several quality wrestlers throughout their lineup, which would make for some exciting individual bouts. However, it was no secret that North Carolina posed a more intriguing team match-up. Between the Rutgers and North Carolina starting lineups, there were six scheduled matches that featured two ranked wrestlers at the weigh.
North Carolina wrestled Wisconsin first, as Rutgers wrestled Hofstra. In the dual with Wisconsin, North Carolina wrestled their full starting lineup, and gave Wisconsin everything they could handle, falling 20 – 16 to the Badgers in the final match.
The result of that match indicated what most fans were already thinking, which was the match between Rutgers and North Carolina would make for an intense, action-packed dual that would come down to the wire. That, however, was not the case.
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Rather than wrestling their full starting line-up, North Carolina chose to wrestle back ups at 133, 149, and 184 – where all three starters were nationally ranked, and even forfeited to Sebastian Rivera at 141-lbs, where North Carolina also had a nationally ranked wrestler who wrestled earlier in the evening. The decision by North Carolina head coach, Coleman Scott, led to a disappointing and non-competitive dual, as Rutgers coasted to a 28 – 9 victory.
Not only did North Carolina’s lineup choices lead to a massive let down for fans, it shined a light on an increasingly growing problem in the sport.
More and more are college wrestling fans witnessing a shift from the “anytime, anywhere, anyplace” mentality, that the sport has been so fondly known for, and a movement that focuses on protecting national rankings and seeding placements for the post-season.
This change in philosophy is not just depriving fans of exciting individual bouts and team duals, it is going against the recent mantra of the sport – “grow wrestling”.
In a wrestling world where division one programs are being cut annually, and where the Olympic games nearly eliminated wrestling from their array of competition, the last thing the sport of wrestling needs is a reason to turn fans away. In fact, wrestling needs the complete opposite, and must create reasons to bring in new fans.
Although the NCAA wrestling tournament is the most exciting three days in sports for a wrestling fan, one could argue it is a niche tournament. The average wrestling newcomer fan most likely not going to spend three days of their March displaying eight monitors in-front of them to catch every second of a sport they are not familiar with. The wrestling world is going to grow most rapidly through dual meets that have marquee matchups that create exciting atmospheres, and a fun-filled family night out.
Rutgers wrestling has been one of the best at doing this, as the Rutgers faithful will regularly fill the Jersey Mike’s Arena for a loaded Big Ten or non-conference dual meet card. The Scarlet Knights have been in the top five in attendance for the last several years, and regularly provide an environment and show that draws families around the Garden State to Piscataway on a winter Friday night.
That will all come to a screeching halt, though, if college wrestling continues the trajectory that it is on. Families will stop spending their time and money to race to the local college to watch a dual meet if all they are going to see is back-up wrestlers and forfeits.
With the variety of streaming platforms available in today’s technology-based world, almost every dual meet in college wrestling is accessible from home. Wrestling fans do not want to rely on that, if possible, because of how fun the atmosphere at these college wrestling matches can be. That electric buzz in these gyms and arenas, that cannot be felt from the comfort of a living room, will slowly fade out if college teams continue to protect their star wrestlers’ rankings.
The biggest issue is that there is no current solution to stopping this problem. There are no repercussions for the coaches, wrestlers, or team. Sitting out of a dual has no bearing on a wrestlers potential seeding at the national tournament, or their standing in the national rankings. The wrestler simply avoids a tough match, where they could potentially lose, and comfortably sits status-quo where they were in the rankings.
In turn, this is making a dual meet season, which already does not carry much weight, almost meaningless. North Carolina, last night, made it very clear that they did not care about the outcome of that dual. In fact, they knew very well that they would lose the match.
They did not care that this was a well-advertised attraction for college wrestling, held at one of New Jersey’s biggest venues. They did not care that on Thanksgiving weekend, and one of college football’s highest viewership nights, that fans throughout the tri-state area were going to travel to Newark, New Jersey for what they thought would be a highly competitive dual. They solely cared about protecting the seeds of almost half their starting lineup.
What is the answer to this growing issue? The answer is not quite clear. The one thing that is clear is that this is a growing problem in the sport of wrestling. And if these coaching decisions continue, not only will wrestling not grow, but it will lose the existing fans it already has.
Of course, there will always be the die-hards that will follow every match, but they will no longer travel to do so. They will sit back in their recliner, with a sandwich and a beer, watching dual meets from the comfort of their living room. They will not bring their children to the events. Those children will not bring a friend, who may be unfamiliar with the sport and would fall in love with the spectacle of a Friday night Big Ten match. The fandom of the sport will continue to decline, and the little meaning that dual meets currently hold will be gone.
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