Takedown Report

2024-25 Conference Movement Primer

The world of college athletics is changing by the year – actually, maybe not that slow, maybe by the month or week. It seems like late spring and summer are the times to monitor which schools are changing conferences and which conferences are raiding other smaller leagues. 
This offseason proved to be one of the most impactful in college athletics with the Big Ten expanding to the West Coast and a pair of Big 8/12 mainstays heading to the SEC. 
Some of these moves don’t directly impact wrestling – others have. There are a few wrestling conferences that have undergone major facelifts and will look much different during the 2024-25 season and beyond.  Since it can be difficult to follow all of these changes, we’ve gone conference by conference to see how each has evolved for the 2024-25 season. 

ACC: The ACC comes out a winner in this game of musical chairs as they add a very talented Stanford team. Sure, the geography of Stanford being in the Atlantic Coast Conference doesn’t add up, but we’ve had time to come to terms with the fact that these conferences don’t make much sense. 
On the mat, Stanford brings a team that will likely enter the season in the top-15 in tournament and dual rankings. The Cardinal boasts a lineup that features three All-Americans, finished 16th in the nation in 2024, and has inked three top-eight recruiting classes in a row. 
After years of claiming the ACC is on the rise, the 2025 conference tournament will now feature seven teams and gets that much tougher. 

Big Ten: The Big Ten added four schools (Oregon, Southern California, UCLA, and Washington) and none of them currently field a wrestling team. The initial reaction is “Great, maybe one of them will add wrestling,” however, will all of the new financial changes coming to college athletics, you might start to worry whether one or more Big Ten schools will drop in the near future. … more at … https://intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/2024-25-conference-movement-primer-r99569/

October 4, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | acc, ncaa, sports