Given where Vito Arujau from Cornell is sitting, in the bottom bracket at 6th seed, who came up with that madness? I’m not sure the Seeding Committee is aware of it or not, but Vito is the returning NCAA Champion and the defending World Champion!
Granted, he has two losses on the season. Both of them to a very talented wrestler from Lehigh who’s seeded 2nd which puts them together again in the quarters.
Yes, I know the NCAA seeding committee has, to eliminate constant bitching and political infighting, established a set of hard fast criteria. And, maybe that’s what has Vito at 6th but, couldn’t there be one or two ‘we need to do something’ exceptions?
Not for Vito, I’m not asking for Vito, he’ll do what he’s always done.
But for Kai Orine from NC State who’s seeded 3rd and will run into Vito in the quarters. Is that fair to Kai? Why not put Vito 3rd and push Kai to 4th? That would give Kai a better shot at placing and in theory a match against Fix in the semi’s. But hitting Vito in the quarters, well, I wish him well.
Of course, Kai might beat Vito, but there’s a stronger possibility that won’t happen.
So, instead of penalizing Vito for only having 15 matches, is the Seeding Committee really teaching him a lesson? Ask Kai and just to play devil’s advocate here, Dylan Shawver from Rutgers has 5 loses and he’s seeded 4th, two slots ahead of Vito who has only lost to one person all year.
Now to the ultimate, “what the hell is anyone thinking,” bobblehead move. Penn State’s Starocci is the 9th seed? Pardon me, but he’s a three-time NCAA Champion going for his fourth title and the committee seeds him 9th!
No one has come close to touching him this year. Yea, I get it, he forfeited out of the Big Ten’s and they’re his two losses but really, you could hand out baseball bats to half the athletes in his weight class and he’d still win the tournament.
But I guess the Seeding Committee is teaching him, and PSU a lesson. “We have rules.”
Horse manure.
He was saving himself at the Big 10’s for the NCAA’s because his knee wasn’t at 100%. No one shook hands with him and then walked off the mat with more points than he had. It was two whistle-whistles.
Again, just like Vito, Carter doesn’t give a hoot where you put him, but I bet Mekhi Lewis does. He’s seeded 1st, and deserves a shot to be in the finals. Not now. So, who is the Seeding Committee teaching a lesson to here, Carter? Nope! Then in the semi’s, on paper at least, Carter has Shane Griffith. I bet the Michigan coaches are jumping for joy over that.
Hypothetically speaking, what if Michigan was in the running, neck and neck for the team title with Penn State. Wouldn’t it be sneaky if Cael (which he’d never do so please no poison pen notes) knew that Carter could take out Shane, but if they met in the finals, that might be enough points for Michigan to win the team title. So, strategically he has Carter whistle-whistle out of the Big Ten’s, get 9th seed and take Shane out so the Nittany Lions would win the team title.
Sounds plausible, certainly sneaky, and of course no coach would ever do that, right? Has the Seeding Committee thought of that, I doubt it.
These people need to have a “however” for those moments when the black and white of their rules don’t make sense. And in the case of Vito and Carter, they’re not the ones that were taught a lesson.
