Really good interview with Tony Ersland of Purdue just aired today on YouTube with a lot of good insights into the season. The interview is 33 minutes long so I tried to get the key notes below but it is a good listen
Interview was with Tanner Lipsett (wrestling supervisor of operations/SID), Cory Palm (director of broadcasting) and head coach Tony Ersland.
Can’t give opponents and dates yet, middle of next week is when we hope to be able to have schedule
Tentative start date will be January 9 and 10 will be a conference only Big 10 season. That doesn’t mean every school is going to start that weekend depending on states. Will finish around February 20.
Take a week off to end February (Purdue specific but probably all teams) and then head to Big 10 Tournament March 6-7.
Thought it was going to be neutral site Big 10 Tournament for a while but looks like Penn State will stay host, but that is in pencil.
9 competitions, spreading out over 6 dates. Each team will have a quad, a tri and four individual duals (two home, two away). Ersland later mentioned 10 duals in the interview but I think that might have been a misstatement based on outline above.
My observation: There are 7 weekends between January 9 and February 20 so I guess each team will have one weekend off and that probably means just one competition per weekend, no idea/mention of the day.
Extra matches (not exhibitions!): wrestled at each event to help get the match count up. Due to Covid and the potential of missing duals for national qualifying purposes. Gives us flexibility to wrestle different kids for more than just qualification purposes. If you are not one of 10 starters, you can see how you are developing and provide student-athlete welfare. Should be available at each and every date.
Eight-match minimum in the past has been cut to four matches for NCAA qualifying.
Won’t have the match counts for the RPI so will do away with that. Will look at the historical data from the past five years. Had been trying to move away from that but for this year only it seems to be the best way to go. Don’t expect it to be the same number across all weights in the conference. Talked about a hypothetical where they Big 10 comes out to an average of 81 which would be eight across all 10 weights and one wild card but he did not think that would be the case. Thinks they will get their number and have to live with it.
Problems with the qualifying system would be a team like UNI who has gotten better but was also in the MAC previously and is now in the Big 12, unsure how that would factor into the equation. We be interesting to see but will ultimately provide clarity on what you need to do to qualify. RPI could be used for at-large to compare similar kids.
Got into RPI discussion for a while. Sport tried to be more data driven which Ersland thinks gives better results but it just can’t work that way this year. Goal is always to get the best kids to the NCAA tournament but each method has its pros and cons. Interesting paradox that the coach’s ranking does have less significance than before (1 of 3 prongs with RPI and win% in normal year) but nobody sees the kids more than the coaches. Going to be more of the older qualification system this year.
Back to extra matches: Rules established in order to make sure those matches count, that is why they can’t be called exhibition. At South Beach or Journeyman duals they would have 4-man round robin so it was born of that process. Will not be a set number and will be agreed upon based on a team’s needs. Has to be some consideration for officials who don’t want to officiate a tournament as there will be a cost associated but expected several at each match, no specific number stated. Basically, they will look at who a team is traveling and who needs matches. We will do the best we can. Could be for backup guys or somebody who has been out and needs two matches to get count up.
Coaches put in for the travel size to be moved up to 20 from 15 since this isn’t a sport like football where you can’t switch positions and have a cornerback play receiver for example. This has not been approved as of interview.
Wrap up scheduling, other conferences have released schedules but another thing that plays into it is BTN TV which is a big deal for the conference. Producing a quad isn’t ideal with two mats at once so will be interesting to see what they do. Hope to have everything in the next week so that travel and plans can be made.
Jokingly, Ersland said he envisions getting the schedule on Christmas Eve and expecting Lipsett to have everything figured out really quickly as I spend time with my family.
Goal is to broadcast more wrestling and get more on TV, worst case scenario is that they should be on BTN+ as a minimum. Wasn’t mentioned but I believe this was in reference to the quad duals when two mats go at once with any logistical set up issues that may arise.
BTN: You can subscribe to a specific school like in the past or a wrestling only package which is available for the first time this year. Stinks having to wait for the schedule but the hope is the reward will be worth the wait.
Wrapped up talking about academic success at Purdue. Very proud of the team and how they handled everything from virtual to in person. Now they have almost a month to focus on nothing but wrestling until they resume classes in mid-January.
Interview was with Tanner Lipsett (wrestling supervisor of operations/SID), Cory Palm (director of broadcasting) and head coach Tony Ersland.
Can’t give opponents and dates yet, middle of next week is when we hope to be able to have schedule
Tentative start date will be January 9 and 10 will be a conference only Big 10 season. That doesn’t mean every school is going to start that weekend depending on states. Will finish around February 20.
Take a week off to end February (Purdue specific but probably all teams) and then head to Big 10 Tournament March 6-7.
Thought it was going to be neutral site Big 10 Tournament for a while but looks like Penn State will stay host, but that is in pencil.
9 competitions, spreading out over 6 dates. Each team will have a quad, a tri and four individual duals (two home, two away). Ersland later mentioned 10 duals in the interview but I think that might have been a misstatement based on outline above.
My observation: There are 7 weekends between January 9 and February 20 so I guess each team will have one weekend off and that probably means just one competition per weekend, no idea/mention of the day.
Extra matches (not exhibitions!): wrestled at each event to help get the match count up. Due to Covid and the potential of missing duals for national qualifying purposes. Gives us flexibility to wrestle different kids for more than just qualification purposes. If you are not one of 10 starters, you can see how you are developing and provide student-athlete welfare. Should be available at each and every date.
Eight-match minimum in the past has been cut to four matches for NCAA qualifying.
Won’t have the match counts for the RPI so will do away with that. Will look at the historical data from the past five years. Had been trying to move away from that but for this year only it seems to be the best way to go. Don’t expect it to be the same number across all weights in the conference. Talked about a hypothetical where they Big 10 comes out to an average of 81 which would be eight across all 10 weights and one wild card but he did not think that would be the case. Thinks they will get their number and have to live with it.
Problems with the qualifying system would be a team like UNI who has gotten better but was also in the MAC previously and is now in the Big 12, unsure how that would factor into the equation. We be interesting to see but will ultimately provide clarity on what you need to do to qualify. RPI could be used for at-large to compare similar kids.
Got into RPI discussion for a while. Sport tried to be more data driven which Ersland thinks gives better results but it just can’t work that way this year. Goal is always to get the best kids to the NCAA tournament but each method has its pros and cons. Interesting paradox that the coach’s ranking does have less significance than before (1 of 3 prongs with RPI and win% in normal year) but nobody sees the kids more than the coaches. Going to be more of the older qualification system this year.
Back to extra matches: Rules established in order to make sure those matches count, that is why they can’t be called exhibition. At South Beach or Journeyman duals they would have 4-man round robin so it was born of that process. Will not be a set number and will be agreed upon based on a team’s needs. Has to be some consideration for officials who don’t want to officiate a tournament as there will be a cost associated but expected several at each match, no specific number stated. Basically, they will look at who a team is traveling and who needs matches. We will do the best we can. Could be for backup guys or somebody who has been out and needs two matches to get count up.
Coaches put in for the travel size to be moved up to 20 from 15 since this isn’t a sport like football where you can’t switch positions and have a cornerback play receiver for example. This has not been approved as of interview.
Wrap up scheduling, other conferences have released schedules but another thing that plays into it is BTN TV which is a big deal for the conference. Producing a quad isn’t ideal with two mats at once so will be interesting to see what they do. Hope to have everything in the next week so that travel and plans can be made.
Jokingly, Ersland said he envisions getting the schedule on Christmas Eve and expecting Lipsett to have everything figured out really quickly as I spend time with my family.
Goal is to broadcast more wrestling and get more on TV, worst case scenario is that they should be on BTN+ as a minimum. Wasn’t mentioned but I believe this was in reference to the quad duals when two mats go at once with any logistical set up issues that may arise.
BTN: You can subscribe to a specific school like in the past or a wrestling only package which is available for the first time this year. Stinks having to wait for the schedule but the hope is the reward will be worth the wait.
Wrapped up talking about academic success at Purdue. Very proud of the team and how they handled everything from virtual to in person. Now they have almost a month to focus on nothing but wrestling until they resume classes in mid-January.
