Interesting stats from Jason Bryant that I have to take credit for sharing with you, or botching the math as I write.
Currently we have 285 D-I, D-II and D-II teams competing in wrestling.
According to the NCAA, at our peak in 1972, the sport had 393 teams. In the stats that Jason posted, he wondered if the NCAA was counting wrestling clubs in that 393 number?
I doubt it. Because, having wrestled then, I don’t remember any school having clubs at all; intermural programs yes, but not clubs.
Maybe I’m wrong? I apologize if I am.
Either way, if there were clubs then, I can’t think of any reason why a school would report it to the NCAA?
Remember, the NCAA is basically a company with employees that have dues paying members. Why would clubs want to report their existence to the NCAA, so they can pay dues and receive zero benefits?
So, I must assume that the 393 number in 1972 are actual collegiate teams.
If I take this one step further, using that number, the population of the United States in 1972 was 205 million. Today we have 341 million people, or an increase of roughly 40%. If wrestling was doing fine, shouldn’t the sport have a 40% increase in the number of collegiate programs too, matching the population growth?
If that’s a reasonable assumption, it would put the number we should have at 530 teams.
FYI . . . there are roughly 2000 degree offering D-I, D-II and D-III institutions in America. So, to expect 530 teams to have a wrestling program, or roughly 1/4th of that total isn’t a stretch.
If I’m off by a decimal point or two, then how about a 20% increase. That would put the number at 471 teams.
In Wade’s math, again, and I could be off some, it means we’re experiencing somewhere around a 40% decrease in potential program numbers; or from 471 teams to the current 285.
This is why I write, and why I am so adamant about the need to make serious changes to our sport; while the Rules Committee continues its Band-Aid program.
Let’s look at some more numbers if you have the time?
At this year’s NCAA tournament, there was a decrease in the number of pins from the previous year. What has increased though, was the number of tech falls as it is easier to get to 15 when you count by 3’s and 4’s than if you count by 2’s and 3’s. But that statistic doesn’t mean more action. Weren’t the new rules supposed to do that?
Another interesting statistic, there were a total of 1389 points scored at the NCAA’s a year ago. This year there were 1428 points scored. And increase of 3%, and I’m sure the Rules Committee will spend an inordinate amount of time patting themselves on their backs for the increase.
“Look, our changes made a difference, we had increased action!”
Nope, sorry guys! When a takedown goes from 2 points to 3 points, that’s a 50% increase in point production for the same action. So, in theory, we should have seen on the low side, a 25% increase in scoring, not 3%.
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