Welcome to my annual review of the Big Ten regular season’s dual results, and my venture into turning those results into pre-seeds for the upcoming Big Ten Wrestling Championships. It is a challenge even when taking a deep dive as I do, given that the most bouts a wrestler can get is eight out of a possible 13 opponents. Add illness and injury, maybe some game-playing, and very few of the starters that wrestle a full slate get eight other starters. Still, much of what I will write has some basis in fact, and when it doesn’t, I’ll make something up!
To give a bit of history, I remember starting this exercise on or about the year 2009 for On the Mats, the old Scout board. I lost my job that year and needed something to occupy my time. While I may have skipped a year or two along the way, it has generally been a yearly offering for my fellow fans. And when I retired in early 2020, these musings were done by spending longer hours than before. That doesn’t mean they are closer to the pre-seeds released by the Big Ten, it only means I am doing something I love a little bit longer.
On February 23, the final Big Ten conference dual meet, Purdue vs Nebraska, will take place. Immediately after, I will post the first two of the ten weight classes, then at least two per day for the days that follow. I got a jump on the “fun” this year and data collection is nearly done. If you remember my past reviews, I use exclusively conference duals for my pre-seeds, but do venture into tournaments looking for tie-breakers. That happened only a couple times this year. The write-ups go to seeds 10 or 11, unlike the past few years when I seeded all the way to 14. The first time a wrestler is mentioned in a review, I’ll include his team in parentheses, and after that refer to the wrestler by only his last name. There will be a closing post, after all of the weight classes have been released, to discuss the team race (Big Ten Wrestling Championships).
Remember, a wrestler's conference record doesn't alone determine their seed. One must journey one or two levels below that. A great record, albeit against mostly the bottom half or so of my pre-seeds may be far less impressive than a marginal record against all the top guys. In fact, I honestly don't look closely at the record at all, focusing instead on things like HTH results, etc.
As always, feel free to disagree. We all learn from others when they come at something from a different angle. Respectful discussion is appreciated, even embraced. With as much data as I crunch, mistakes are always possible, so feel free to point out errors and I’ll correct them quickly.
Well, I believe that does it for my remarks. Please enjoy!! 125 and 133 (at least) shall be posted on Sunday, February 23.
To give a bit of history, I remember starting this exercise on or about the year 2009 for On the Mats, the old Scout board. I lost my job that year and needed something to occupy my time. While I may have skipped a year or two along the way, it has generally been a yearly offering for my fellow fans. And when I retired in early 2020, these musings were done by spending longer hours than before. That doesn’t mean they are closer to the pre-seeds released by the Big Ten, it only means I am doing something I love a little bit longer.
On February 23, the final Big Ten conference dual meet, Purdue vs Nebraska, will take place. Immediately after, I will post the first two of the ten weight classes, then at least two per day for the days that follow. I got a jump on the “fun” this year and data collection is nearly done. If you remember my past reviews, I use exclusively conference duals for my pre-seeds, but do venture into tournaments looking for tie-breakers. That happened only a couple times this year. The write-ups go to seeds 10 or 11, unlike the past few years when I seeded all the way to 14. The first time a wrestler is mentioned in a review, I’ll include his team in parentheses, and after that refer to the wrestler by only his last name. There will be a closing post, after all of the weight classes have been released, to discuss the team race (Big Ten Wrestling Championships).
Remember, a wrestler's conference record doesn't alone determine their seed. One must journey one or two levels below that. A great record, albeit against mostly the bottom half or so of my pre-seeds may be far less impressive than a marginal record against all the top guys. In fact, I honestly don't look closely at the record at all, focusing instead on things like HTH results, etc.
As always, feel free to disagree. We all learn from others when they come at something from a different angle. Respectful discussion is appreciated, even embraced. With as much data as I crunch, mistakes are always possible, so feel free to point out errors and I’ll correct them quickly.
Well, I believe that does it for my remarks. Please enjoy!! 125 and 133 (at least) shall be posted on Sunday, February 23.
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