The issue that many of the college coaches have isn't that they are against more programs (it allows for in tons of cases for shorter commutes and less dollars being spent for travel).

An issue is the athletic directors at a majority of these colleges want 80 percent or more being Kansas kids on scholarship (which isn't feasible).

They are comparing Pumpkins (basketball) to Apples. Nearly every school in the state at the high school level has basketball...not the same for wrestling. Lets say we have 600 schools in the state basketball may be at 550...wrestling on the other hand could be closer to 300. Now take into consideration you have to have 5 guys on the court to play basketball so state wide you have at the absolute minimum 2,750 players state wide (which we know is way more, because basketball usually has double that).

Now with wrestling we have 14 weights and let's assume we have the 300 programs. 64 of those are large schools in 5a/6a which should have 14 kids at minimum on their team (if not then coaches need to work on recruiting the hallways). So it would be 896 wrestlers...
The smaller classes may have closer to just half (7 on a roster), (grant it some smaller programs are full rosters), but we will say 236 programs with a minimum of 7 in this scenario would equal 1,652.

Now let's go back.... only a 1/4th may be seniors (out of 4 years in high school)... so with the minimum of basketball of 2,750 would be 687.5 seniors.

Wrestling (given the scenario)... 896 + 1652 = 2548...to then (taking 25%) would be 637. Now we all know not 100% of seniors will go do basketball or wrestling or any sport at college, so I would say maybe a 1/3rd of seniors go on to do those sports (football and other things may take away, military, or other opportunities).

1/3rd of 687.5 = 229.2 basketball players out there... we have 45 college programs which equals a bit over 5 per team, if every kid is recruited (which doesn't happen).

1/3rd of 637 = 212.3 wrestlers are seniors. We have 17 programs college wise for around 12.5 wrestlers per team.

An issue that exists is need and quality. At 4 year programs you can take gambles on kids and have a few walk ons, but some of these kids think they are owed full scholarships with 2.5 gpas, 18 acts and a 5th place finish twice in Kansas. The other problem is kids are homesick very easy and so many don't spread their wings to go wrestle. 20 years ago in Kansas you had Colby, FHSU, Labette and Hays as the option and those teams were doing extremely well. Kstate had a really solid club team as well. But the saturation of programs and the standard Athletic Directors want to have (with success) is not that easy... let me be honest with this...of the seniors it may be 25% of the total....

Thus basketball 229.2 equals 57.3 athletes for 45 programs = 1.3
Thus wrestling 212.3 equals 53.1 athletes for 17 programs = 3.1

But wait there is more....... you are recruiting for 5 positions in basketball....10 in college wrestling...


Basetball you would have maybe 45 teams vying for .25 of a person.
Wrestling you would have maybe 17 teams vying for .31 of a person....

However let's face it many of these kids just love the sport and won't be a world beater, hell you may have a kid that is national honor society and never qualified for state but has 100 wins in career (very feasible with amount of competitions these days)...but always had tough luck at regionals.

College coaches are trying to recruit the best from the state ...that is their job!

It is the job of the athletes, parents, and coaches (in high school or clubs) to make sure college coaches know about the kids that love the sport but don't have eyes on them because they may have never made it to the big events or maybe ran into injuries on a promising season... I will say for a fact that NO COLLEGE COACH will turn away a kid that wants to wrestle...but as a fan base we need to help the kids not getting recruiting opportunities. It all starts with asking if the wrestler would like to compete in college? If yes then connect them to programs... if you aren't sure about where they would fit well, there are many of us out there as former coaches/athletes at that level that can give guidance to those wanting to move on.

We have a broad state in Kansas, so seeing everyone is impossible. We have to be the voice for those that want to move on so we can ensure all teams have full rosters. However, athletic directors on many of these schools need to realize you can't make chicken salad out of....well, you know.

Neighboring Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado and Oklahoma have a combined 3 NJCAA programs in wrestling. Other nearby states like NM and Arkansas have 1 (if you can even count Ark Baptist since they average 1 wrestler per year with no support).

We need to be the voice as a community to ensure success is reached. You can't win on Kansas kids alone (no matter how much you love them). However, I do know when you look at 4 year schools in Neighboring states, almost all have at least 1 KS rep. We are battling outside states that can offer big money to lure kids away. We aren't going to have success if pigeon holed in to investing $$$ on Kansas kids only.

I think we need to get people together from all parts of the wrestling community and work on what we have...we have had the most growth in the United States, but programs west of the Rockies need to emerge to save the sport. We need to not add any programs until each program has a 2nd semester minimum of 10 wrestlers. Also NAIA is a different breed, you can have open weights in a dual, but have 12 wrestlers go on to nationals because the ability to double up at weights.

Duals don't really matter, they are designed to just get home competitions in all honesty. Maybe everyone can just host 3 to 4 team scramble tournament on a Friday at 5 pm or so and lure fans to competitions as high school still typically does Thursday and Saturday events. The other way to get exposure is to have a college dual in place at the conclusion of a high school tournament or something too. We need to think outside the box on how to help. I hear the pains and struggles of the coaches at the college level, however as a fan I get it too. We should come together and everyone educate each other and solve how to save what we have and help it grow.

I know many coaches chose to go to Missouri Valley Invite (which is the top NAIA competition outside of Nationals), They did have back ups for 2 DIIs there, but Kansas' Central Christian tried to get in and was denied...due to that school not being able to compete on Sundays due to their college's rules, they had to drive to Minnesota that weekend to get mat time.

Ottawa was at MVI, but sent a slew of kids to Kansas Cup, so they were in more than one place (also they have a women's program to juggle so it was appreciated to see them send folks. However I hear complaints that it isn't that easy to send backups to an event, although I think that is why you have GA's and so on. Get everyone match time. This could be the premier tournament for your back ups....however, NAIA has a rule about GPA and percentages on who can compete. You can only wrestle so many elite kids with low GPAs, after that you have to have above a certain GPA for things to balance out on who is really allowed to compete.

Again a lot of hurdles, but we need to come together to discuss.


The crowd for the cup is great, but I know many college coaches believing this competition will be in existence for much longer...but again, to save events and programs we need to understand the frustration on both sides as coaches, officials, fans, and administrators.