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Why "Social Media" is great....

Some semi-interesting quotes from Tom Brands in this article (link).
“We peaked at Big Tens last year. We have four Big Ten champions then went on to have three in the finals at the NCAAs and lost two overtime matches,” Brands said. “Spencer Lee had to bail us out.”
For as much as I don't like watching (or hearing) him during matches, I still can't help but appreciate Tom Brands.
 
Doesn’t seem like a kid interested in using every year of NCAA eligibility he has remaining.

 
SIAP but this site is going away in November. Wrestling Room's new home will be here . . .


Here's the story.

 
SIAP but this site is going away in November. Wrestling Room's new home will be here . . .


Here's the story.


What's "Wrestling Room" and where is its current home?
 

Oh, ho ho, McAndrew sleuthing SB Nation to bring us the fresh goods--thanks, Tom!

Yo, anybody here ever hear of Erik Vesper before? He only just joined SBN on 9/24/21. No Tweeter attached to his account: https://www.sbnation.com/users/Erik Vesper.

My Wrestling Writing Fanalysis:
- Key Premise: "And while it’s been an uphill battle, Rutgers Wrestling now sits comfortably in the middle of the Big Ten pack, while relentlessly looking to keep climbing."

- Key Questions, the answers to which hopefully address Key Premise: "But just how dominant is the Big Ten today? Is it strange that Rutgers Wrestling placed 9th in the country in 2019 but ended up only 6th in the Big Ten? Or that last year when they got shut out (0-4) in Big Ten competition but still finished tied for 13th nationally?"

- Key Format: "Let’s get some answers and break down the teams in the Big Ten into ranked tiers for the upcoming season". YES! I LOVE tiers! I almost always bring wrestling into convos about other sports, when it comes round to talking tiers. Penn State & Iowa are both Top-5 in football at the moment, but no reasonable person would put either team anywhere near Bama & Jawja's tier. I'm a huge fan of 4x All-American & cancer survivor Brandon Sorenson, who finished his collegiate career 127 - 17, but was 0-8 vs Zain Retherford.

- Key Asterisk/Get Out of Jail Free Card: " This tier list does not factor in past credentials and is only a projection of the upcoming season." I'm also a fan of this technique! For reals. I call it Blogetic License. Is it problematic that the Key Premise that asserts FuddRutgers sits 'comfortably in the middle of the pack' in a B1G historical context, but the article pivots to disregard the past altogether to focus primarily on the future and the author's projections therein? Eh, let the reader decide. This reader, having so noted, has decided to roll with it.

- Key Definitions & Meat: Tier 1 = "It’s these two and then, way further down the line, every other team. No one else has a shot of touching these two monsters who will be competing for both a Big Ten and National Title this year." Teams = PSU & Iowa. Solid framing, with which I, and probably the nation, agree.

Tier 2 = "The teams in the second tier are the ones I feel will end up top 10 in the country when the season is over." Teams = Michigan, Minny, Nebby & Northwestern. Me: that NW inclusion is a little sus, and the non-Tier1 part of the National Top-10 has a number of non-B1G challengers in, in order: OkSt, NC State, Mizzou, Arizona State, Cornell, Va Tech, Iowa State, but I'm all in on Michigan (cum Micic & Myles). I like Nebby's breadth over Minny's Steveson+ lineup, but not much else to quibble with here.

Tier 3 = "All the teams in this tier should finish at least top 20 in the nation with Rutgers and Wisconsin knocking on that top 10 door if a few things drop their way." Teams = Rutgers, Wiscy, Illinois & Ohio State. Tan Tom & Brutus are gonna cover the 10 weights far better than anybody else in this Tier, especially with two new big point scorers in 165 Kharchla & 157 Gallagher--young pups itchin to make a National name but with actual Team Points. They'll still be counted on for many LOLs, like this projection of Echemendia THIS preseason even lower than the preposterous 141 of last preseason. OMG LOL. Can he not beat out D'Emilio? So, never fear, my Lion frens; however much of a brutus apologist I may appear to lean, we shall always have our lols. And while we're at it, I'll go ahead and aver: Ohio State is 10x more fun to lol at when they're not a full-on LOLstock, amiright? TL;DR: tOSU will outpoint Northwestern in Deetroit. Book. That.

Tier 4: "These teams represent the bottom of the Big Ten, but that doesn’t mean they are pushovers, far from it." Teams = Sparty, Purdue, Indiana & MD. Ok, respect on that definition. We at PSU are done spoilt and we know it, b/c for the most part these 4 teams ARE pushovers for the Lions. But from a Rutgers perspective? Can RU go toe to toe with each of these squads? I've mostly joined the author in approaching any analysis from a Nationals Tourney perspective, but this also provides an opportunity to end things: if Rutgers wishes to maintain their asserted spot "comfortably in the middle of the Big Ten pack", these 4 Tier 4 Teams must be matwiped. They'll have their oppties in duals vs Sparty, MD & Indy, but will have to wait for B1Gs to outpoint the toughest, grindiest team in that list, for my money: Purdue.

- Overall: I freakin dig it! I'll definitely look up new SBN Brother Erik with a K this season to see how he continues his writing work on the mothership. Might even throw him a few tips about how best to break up the Wall of Text with some images (respectively asked for from the preeminent wrestling photogs) and, in the absence of that, drop in the Hot Goss in the form of Tweeter & Finsta embeds.

Thanks in advance to Author Vesper and to ModTom for bringing it to us!
 
If this site is ported to some other home where it's pay only, I may delete all my posts.

About On3: https://www.on3.com/about/

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Founder of On3

On3 is founded by Shannon B. Terry, who has 25+ years experience in sports and entertainment media. Terry previously founded 247Sports (acquired by CBS Sports), Pop Culture Media (acquired by CBS Interactive), and co-founded Rivals.com (acquired by Yahoo!).
@sbterry247
 
I’m reading on the McAndrew Board that On3 lures you in for $1 for a year and then slams you with a $99 annual fee in year 2. No, thanks.

So if all this goes down, what’s the best free Penn State wrestling forum? Where will people go?
What a shame that would be. If we're going pay-to-play, can we at least go to Rokfin, and have the proceeds benefit NLWC? @smalls103 ask Martin if he has a forum module.

Time to start a message board transfer portal thread?
 
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Unless I am missing something,(which is entirely possible) it looks like the premium content from this site is being moved to a new site because of Phil selling BWI. Rivals was not sold so I do not see how this entire site gets nuked.
 
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Welp, I appreciate everyone's contributions to PA/Penn State/USA wresting on this board for the last 10 years. I can't justify another web subscription just to read chatter. I'll probably peruse the 247 wresting forum and stick to Rokfin/Flo/Intermat/Big 10 Premium/Track/CDT/Knopsynder/State College.com/Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and occasionally peak at the OSU and Iowa sites out of guilty pleasure.
 
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In the works for awhile now ....

bopper1988 wrote "As of today from what I am hearing if Suriano wrestles again in college there is a good chance it will be where his college career started." on 4/16

Most of us dismissed it because of how ridiculous is sounded forgetting how spot on bopper is with his news usually
 
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