It is nice to hear these PSU stories, and while they reflect well on PSU, Cael, the staff and the wrestlers, this is common across D1. For most D1 institutions grades are a very real and important part of the evaluation process, a fact that many athletes and parents don't realize until it is too late. Roster spots are valuable, APR is important to coach's livelihood and grades are often an indication of many of the characteristics that it takes to become successful in D1 beyond talent.
I was given some numbers by a college coach during the recruiting process and while I can't remember the numbers exactly, it went something like this - 60% of all D1 institutions won't even look at a wrestler that has less than a 3.0GPA. At 2.7 or 2.8 I think the number was close to 75% of all institutions - I know this was the case for the team whose coach told me this - they were a mid-major and their cut-off was 2.8. It could even have been 90% of all institutions - again, I apologize, this was a couple of years ago and I don't remember the exact numbers, but they were startling.
Many people just don't believe this, but I can assure you that it is true. Beyond my own experience in these matters, I have known or am currently friends with many families of D1 wrestlers and the stories are all the same - for the good and the bad. People will point out the rare exception to this here and there as evidence to the contrary, but if you really know what is going on behind the scenes, there is usually more to the story than meets the public eye in those cases or coaches are judicially using their very limited supply of "exceptions" (most of which are usually reserved for the football or basketball teams at major institutions).
If you can't take care of your academics at the HS level, it is a big risk for a coach to assume that you will be able to fulfill the #1 requisite for getting mat time at the D1 level - staying in school and being eligible. And with less than 1% of HS wrestlers moving on to D1, you can be assured that the pool is deep with similarly talented wrestlers that HAVE taken care of business in the classroom.
We have had some recent discussions about a high profile recruit who ended up at tOSU and some hand-wringing by a few over it. Much of the discussion centered around some youthful indiscretions, but as I pointed out, there was a lot of uncertainty with Sammy grade-wise as late as his JR year. I obviously don't know anything for certain, but to me that is most likely just a big a reason why the ship sailed as the other things. Maybe more so.
