Scholarship situation?

[Brian LB-U]

So that was one of my questions--it was commonly known that this was ocurring while it was occurring? That seems crazy to me. I mean, I know, it's the NCAA, but still.....

Pre-internet the NCAA used carrier pigeons to notify fellow members and the media. 😎

 

[Str8DBLz]

When I say I know everyone asks questions of who, what, where.

But if you're not going to divulge the information (and, to be clear, I don't think you should), what was the point of the comment?

Just to let us all know that you know?

Cool.

 

[ss7]

When I say I know everyone asks questions of who, what, where.

Of course they want the info. And it's completely inappropriate for you put it out there. It's not anyone's business who is getting what amount of scholarship money.

And since you (rightly) aren't going to give the details, what's the point of bringing it up at all? If you have that info, good for you. Enjoy your exclusive access to program information quietly. I'm guessing whoever is telling you that information doesn't want it posted on a message board.

 

[Dogwelder]

Penn State has a much longer endowment and donor list for wrestling than almost every school.

That ain't no fake, that's real. That's why they call Penn State Superman. Johnny Ola told Roar about Penn State. He brought Roar there. Roar didn't believe him, but seein' is believin', huh?...Old man Roth'd never come to Penn State, but old Johnny knows these places like the back of his hand.

 

[PSU Fan in TN]

According to the Big Ten Conference Infractions Report, “Several of the conference members applied the conference rule continuously from the 1979-80 through the1990-91 academic years and, as a result, provided grants-in-aid in excess of those permitted by NCAA.” When considering the impact that this over-awarding of scholarships had on Iowa’s wrestling championships (the years of which are in bold type), we could visit www.NCAA.com and review the championship history of Division I wrestling, repeated below.

Year	Champion	Points	Runner-Up	Points		Margin of Victory​
1993	Iowa	123.75	Penn State	87.5		36.25​
1992	Iowa	149	Oklahoma State	100.5		48.50​
1991	Iowa	157	Oklahoma State	108.75		48.25​
1990	Oklahoma State	117.75	Arizona State	104.75		​
1989	Oklahoma State	81.25	Arizona State	70.5		​
1988	Arizona State	93	Iowa	85.5		​
1987	Iowa State	133	Iowa	108		​
1986	Iowa	158	Oklahoma	84.25		73.75​
1985	Iowa	145.25	Oklahoma	98.5		46.75​
1984	Iowa	123.75	Oklahoma State	98		25.75​
1983	Iowa	155	Oklahoma State	102		53.00​
1982	Iowa	131.75	Iowa State	111		20.75​
1981	Iowa	129.75	Oklahoma	100.25		29.50​
1980	Iowa	110.75	Oklahoma State	87		23.75​
1979	Iowa	122.5	Iowa State	88		34.50​
1978	Iowa	94.5	Iowa State	94		​

The Hawks won by the narrowest of margins in 1978 over Iowa State; however, that was before the Big Ten rule was implemented.

My first take on the margins of victory was that the margins were too large to arrive at a different outcome.

However, consider the following: Whereas each school is allowed to award 9.9 scholarships over 10 weight classes, each weight class (on average) will have 0.99 scholarships to award to 2 or 3 wrestlers. If a recruit is a hammer and considered to be a 4-year starter, he might get 0.7 of a scholarship. The other kids at that weight are left with a much smaller scholarship. The Infractions Report reveals that Iowa wrestling over-awarded 7.39 scholarships during just the final four years of application of the Conference’s rule (an average of 1.85 scholarships per each of the four years). In addition to having as many wrestlers as any other school – Iowa could have brought in 2 or 3 additional hammers during the four years of the audit. Now, consider -- that at the National tournament -- a finalist can score almost 20 points more than a low level All American. Suddenly, Iowa’s championships during these years become tainted -- which sucks not only for Iowa, but for all of wrestling for Iowa and Dan Gable are icons of the sport.

I expect that this topic will be revisited in 7 years (when Cael will have won 15 national championships) and comparisons are drawn between Dan Gable (an incredible athlete and coach) to Cael (another incredible athlete and coach).

 

[GogglesPaizano]

If The NCAA had some nards they would have vacated their victories during that period. This violation directly affected recruitment and the performance of the team.

That aside, what about today? Although CV-19 has been a disaster on nearly every front, it on paper may have benefited Iowa the most given thier squad being stacked with seniors. Sure they were favored last year, but we lost 2 national champs in the process. This year was a gift for them especially considering the absence of Ivy league schools. The short schedule screwed us over at 149 as well. The margin of victory was pretty slim, a healthy Berge and a qualified Beau close that gap, granted they lost points from injury as well.

In any case, it's just speculation but whatever plan Brands had on paper two years ago, in terms of the allocation of scholys and promises to recruits, has to be shot to hell. One might think the non starters would bear the brunt of the adjuistment. Just for the sake of argument, let's assume the Sr. starters average a 0.6 scholy, were are taking about taking 3.6 scholys out of the plan for other kids. Even at $20k per (I think it is more) you would have a handful of kids that would get caught with an unexpected $180k total of new burden. Ouch.

No wonder why the Iowa team photos never have smiles.