Yes, but that was under the old system. That's not the landscape in the last few years. If Cassar were a freshman in 2022 or 2023 he wouldn't have been footing his own bill.
Yeah, it's a big departure from the landscape pre-Covid or so, but it's not a departure based on the current landscape. This is why you see that we have added an extra 5 or 6 elite guys to our roster over the past couple of years that probably wouldn't have been here before. PSU has already reaped those gains tremendously. OSU (this year), Michigan and tOSU less so, but they still have gained. Iowa, not so much.
If you think we can roster 30 elite guys - then, yeah, we could gain some more. But I don't think so. We're at about 20 right now and that is just barely manageable. If we do go to 30, then, yes, we will probably see a bunch of portals from PSU like everybody has unsuccessfully predicted for the last few years.
Of note, I count 37 wrestlers with the incoming frosh on the roster for next year. Generally, we also add one or two that nobody was aware of (walk-ons) in the fall, and generally a couple fall off as well. I don't think these roster limits are in play this year, but next year when it is enacted, guys like Wentzel, Rodriguez, Wang, Kelly, Vespa are probably not going to be able to wrestle for PSU. And that's the biggest shame of this.
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