Takedown Report

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 7 Roundup: Do Duals Matter?

The world’s finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 7th week of the 2024-25 NCAA D1 wrestling season.
We’ve completed another week of rad wrestling from the 2024-25 NCAA D1 season, and we’re here to recap it for you!
Box Scores | Rankings | Last Week’s Roundup
It was a fairly light week of competition as many teams were recovering from the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (which ruled). With limited results to examine, I figure now’s as good a time as any for a brief digression, in which I will answer the question: “Do dual meets matter?”
Regular readers of this blog will know I absolutely believe duals matter. Dual meets are, in my humble opinion, the lifeblood of the sport. They are the engine that powers the collegiate season. Without duals, there would be no season, no season, no fans, etc. 
Duals also matter to the sport’s stakeholders. Wrestling is an individual sport, but it takes more than competitors and coaches for the sport to thrive. To maintain the level of funding that many D1 programs enjoy you need buy-in from school administrators, alumni, donors and the community at-large. You need to demonstrate to these stakeholders that your program has value. And the best way to generate enthusiasm from stakeholders is with raucous college rivalries, which are best expressed in head-to-head team competitions. 
When people say “duals matter”, this is what they mean. 
However, in another more specific way, duals, in fact, do not matter. 
And that take is not driven by opinions, but rooted in the rule book. The NCAA team … more at … https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/13255794-ncaa-d1-wrestling-week-7-roundup-do-duals-matter

December 30, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | featured, sports, wrestling