After watching college wrestling this year, and after talking to Gary Mayhabb and Mike Hagerty, I really like the college out of bounds rules. I hope that high school adopts those rules universally and makes it the norm in this country at all levels. That added a level of skill and excitement that, in my opinion, is really good for the sport and takes so much of the judgement out of the boundary calls. I think it is much easier for the refs to call and much more exciting for the fans and the wrestlers. Good job by the collegiate rules committee.

I agree 100%.

I think it would be great also for HS. Might be difficult to do at the kids level given how tight we put several wrestling surfaces onto 1 mat. Would be interesting to see it discussed and possible solutions.

The philosophy of the college official is to NOT call out of bounds or to encourage wrestling all of the time. The rule is that the outside of the out of bounds line extends to the ceiling so even if your foot is in the air, so if your foot is not touching the mat but is inside the "cylinder" you are IN BOUNDS. However, if a wrestler touches outside of the square action is stopped. Avoiding wrestling is now automatically called stalling too. I like this as an official will call stalling more readily than "fleeing" which is an automatic point. All of the college rules seem to be more objective. The problem is...Do High Schools have the mat size and gym size to support college out of bounds?

No they don't. The college out of bounds would have the effect of killing some if not most one day high school tournaments due to the elimination of a mat to provide a safety surface.

... an alternative ... use the FS/GR rule ... you step out, you are penalized 1 point!

Randy,
That wouldnt be a bad idea for HS. The only thinkg I would add is that the scoring wrestler must make an offesive attempt when the other wrestler goes out of bounds. Otherwise it will be like many FR/GR matches, and alot of sumo wrestling type pushing on the edge.

This would not work for the kids division's as some kids wrestle on a 1/4 mat.

The freestyle push out would be a great addition to folkstyle and the collegiate out of bounds would be great but with mat sizes and gym sizes it probly wouldn't work for a tournament.

I noticed that even in the D1's in OKC the surroundings were tight against the tables!

Not too many gyms have the floor space to put two mats wide! I even question whether most could handle more than two, end-to-end!

Me ... I would like to see FS/GR out-of-bounds!

The NCAA rule only requires 5 foot between circles and 5ft to a wall. While that is the rule I could see where they would want more than that given the out of bounds rule.

Rules can be found here: http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/WR15.pdf

Yep, I can understand that too Joe

It is MUCH easier to officiate!

And it creates points and action. It no longer allows out-of-bound to be a "safe haven." (especially this year when wrestlers could ALSO score nearfall & falls out of bounds (check out the Houdashelt edge of the mat cradle on youtube, incredible!). College wrestlers when on their back, can't scoot out & get safe.

The safety issue is a non-issue. It's not often that wrestling on the edge is a floor or table issue....but when it is, then ref blows the whistle & stops action because of it. It really is very simple.

But many, many near-score situations will be allowed to finish because of allowing wrestling on the edge, as the NCAA has.

It is, in my opinion, the absolute BEST thing that has happened to collegiate wrestling in many years.

NF has no reason to not follow suit. NCAA has proven it has been a great change with absolutely nothing but positives.

It clearly removes the subjectivity that often comes into play when a great scramble ensues on the line. I hate having great take downs erased because of a zebra's judgement that a toe touched out of bounds.

Yes, it does. It allows the ref to keep a better eye on the action, looking for control. Rather than trying to see if there are points scored AND if/when a supporting point from each wrestler is out.

It is WAY easier for officials. And thus, fans. And coaches, wrestlers, too.

I can't stress enough how much better it is for everyone involved.

Those concerned about safety, it really is not much different situation than we have now as far as floor & tables, etc.

Best rule change ever. NF NEEDS to do it!

The mats either need to be bigger or a circle that is moved in a bit. Great for the mat manufacturers. I do like the rule. But when a guy's head hits the table or what ever - the surface to finish is not big enough with the current rule. With some of these guys - the end to end reach stretch out of bounds could ber nearly 15-16 feet.

Yeah they were doing that at the NCAA's. They are going to have to think about that a little I agree.

In my opinion, it is much more often that good productive action is continuing on the edge, with scores & good wrestling....than there are situations where there are safety issues with going into tables and onto floors. That already happens as is sometimes. That problem is never really going to be totally gone. With edge of the mat wrestling rules as they have in college, all a ref has to do is blow the whistle & stop action when they feel there is a table or floor concern.

If you ask any college coach, I bet they would overwhelmingly agree that the edge of the mat changes have been one of the best changes to the sport in many years. If they were to try to take it away, they would fight that hard.

It has been overall a very good thing. NF should follow suit. If NCAA can do it, there is no reason why NF can't.

I also like the fact that a person can be pinned out of bounds. Instead of the referee looking to see if both shoulders are in, if the kid is pinned, he's pinned.

Yes, that has been a good rule change. A wrestler on their back has no other choice but to fight off their back or hold out until time runs out. They can't push out of bounds to get safe.

This is the case for both falls & nearfalls.

I'm very much in favor of this rule change. As an official and coach I like it. Although seeing a foot go out of bounds isn't really a judgement call, I hate stopping a match because an inch of a shoe crossed the line, taking away a takedown. That's what the rulebook says to do though, and I don't get to pick and choose which rules I want to follow.

With that being said, the only downfall of the rule being applied to HS (but I still think it's worth implementing) is how or what to watch in the pinning situation. At the NCAAs, I saw a couple of matches that had a pin situation out of the circle. The ref was watching the shoulders, as I believe he should have, but the feet of the offensive wrestler went OOB. There are assistants on each mat for that event, so they saw it. What happens in HS when both are out but the ref calls a pin? Not having two refs (or video replay for that matter) does make it different in HS vs. College. Another thing that I saw was how the NCAA wrestlers would flop a foot or hand OOB, knowing that was a way to get the whistle blown. The kids would do the splits to get a foot out. There's the next "controversy."