The Penn State-Iowa dual meet. If that match up would have used A point Earned is a Point Scored system; found at wadechalles.com, PSU would have won 87-30. That’s somewhat similar to what actually happened, mine being roughly three to four times that of the actual score.
Although people might say; why change to A Point Earned, if the score is roughly the same, with mine just being a multiple of what actually happened?
Wouldn’t that just be making a change for change’s sake, just like the Rules Committee did with the 3-point takedown? I’ll answer that in a minute but first . . .
Did any of you see any more action in that dual meet than there was in last year’s dual, or the year before that? 3-point takedowns didn’t, doesn’t, and won’t incentivize any wrestler to do any more than what they’ve been doing. It’s just a shell game that the Rules Committee perpetrated on the fans. It’s the appearance of making a bold move when actually, nothing changes but the point totals which they think means more excitement.
All the athletes care about is getting their hand raised, as it should be, because no one has ever been degraded, belittled, or felt inferior for winning by a couple of points.
It’s just those poor souls that didn’t win who feel contrite, and take the hit, especially if the team loses.
I was kind of bored watching the match. Almost everyone to the man seemed to be trying hard to achieve only one goal; get their hand raised. That’s the difference between A Point Earned and what you see every week. Besides winning your match, each athlete is responsible to go above and beyond by putting as many team points on the board as they can. That’s something that’ll have the fans salivating about.
Wrestling must change. Yes, winning individual bouts is important, but so is making the fans sit on the edges of their seats. A Point Earned does that, for every point scored is a team point registered.
And it’s why we’re where we are, at a place in the sporting hierarchy at the top of the insignificant sports, or at the bottom of the significant ones. Pick one, they’re both the same.
Were you aware that a survey taken just this week for the Super Bowl placed wrestling at a 1% favorability rating? That means that 99% of the country doesn’t give a hoot about what it is we do, or what we like.
Why do we always seem to be happy with that? The only answer I can think of is we don’t know any better. It’s like being so used to McDonald’s that we don’t know how wonderful it is to be served at the Savoy, or eat at Ruth Christ’s.
Amateur wrestling could like the WWE or the UFC, who are the financial kings of the mono-e-mono entertainment industry. I get it, WWE is scripted entertainment, but it’s a billion-dollar industry that’s centered around two athletes entertaining their ticket holders. Something we know how to do, but the rules keep us from achieving it.
It’s our coach’s fault for not making 5 times what they’re currently taking home in salaries. They’re either afraid, uncomfortable, unknowing, or lost to what could be.
With A Point Earned is a Point Scored, and several of the other Super Seven changes I’ve developed, our fans would be screaming for more, and the coaching staffs wouldn’t be quite as nice mat side, or in practice. They’d be demanding, or if you like the word threatening, for more points. “Quit protecting your lead and break the match open.” And yes, 3 great athletes could defeat a team that just won 7 of the 10 bouts with A Point Earned. Actually, 2 really great athletes could defeat a team that had 8 athletes winning their bouts by single digits.
But, how is that different than all the other multi-billion dollars sports? One or two tremendous athletes can make the difference if they’re surrounded by less talented teammates. Mahomes proved that last night.
Think of it this way, what would it be like to watch a dual meet when these scoring machines were present? Mills, Lee, Askren, Lewis, Gable, Kinseth, Hodge, Nickel, Taylor, Nolf, Dellagatta, Retherford? It’s not that they were champions, which they were. It’s that when they were up by 7, they were upset they weren’t up by 12. And, when they were up by 15, they were livid that they hadn’t pinned their opponent yet.
Wrestling needs to instill that kind of mentality into the sport. And it begins with the rules, which will filter down to the coaches, who will impart their opinions to their athletes; with backup support from the fans.
Believe me, our wrestlers are some of the greatest athletes in the sporting industry. Period. We’re just not seeing it because the rules only encourage them to do just enough to win. Watching matches these days is like watching the Indianapolis 500 where 90% of the vehicles in the race have governors on their engines.
I would love to see our collegiate superstars taking home a hundred thousand dollars a year in compensation for what they do. That’s possible, like the big boy sports receive, when we have the networks fighting to win the contracts to air our sport, and the field houses are overflowing not only at Iowa and Penn State but at Clarion, Appalachian State and Little Rock as well.
All that is possible, but not the way we’ve been going. It’s up to you the fans. If you like it the way it is, keep doing what you’ve always done. If you believe there’s more to the sport than what you’re seeing, then it’s time to let the Rules Committee know how you feel. Reading what I write might be interesting, but it’s only one voice in an echo chamber.
The sport needs a choir, and I know what I know, and I know very little about far more. But marketing, creativity, and entertaining is at the center of my wheelhouse of knowledge.
And we’re blowing it as other sports are making significant splashes in the industry. It’s not that we’re losing fans, we’ve just been losing programs; and we seem to be unintentionally oblivious to it.
