I love wrestling and have been to many JUCO,Division I,II,III national tournaments.
I graded programs against eachother and by the way they have been performing at national level based over the past few years. As far as new coaches, etc. I tried to take into consideratation that factor too. Coaches are the head of programs so I guess the grade reflects on them too a little. I judge established programs success at the end of the year by the way you finish at nationals, the big show (indivdual finalist is whats exciting at nationals), watching the finals is the finishing touch on a great weekend. Its what forums, newspapers, ESPN, fans etc. love.
If budget is an issue, Then I guess you should still have a real title contender or two each year after you have been a program for a few years. Budget is always an issue but LCC,Lindenwood,UNK,and Edinboro find a way to compete in the top 10 quite often while having national finalist.
Its a touchy subject but fun to talk about. Maybe a endowment fund will come from this.
Wouldn't FHSU or Newman apply for Divison I status if they had a 5 million endowment fund? I encourage USAWKS to set one up now, strictly for a future Division I program in Kansas soon.
If a school still gave there normal help of a few full rides etc. The interest would be enough to have decent Division I budget.
I will say this for a bold statement. No doubt would Kansas be way more successful at developing K-12 talent/college talent/Olympic talent with one Divison I school than with all the other schools combined. I am glad we have collegiate wrestling opportunities.
My question is who grows up wanting to wrestle anything but Division I in college? Every youngster either wants to win the Olympics or Wrestle for a Divsion I perennial power. My original direction of the the topic has now shifted (due to above reasons)to encouraging USAWKS to start the Divsion I, tax exempt future Divsion I program fund. Start it and see what happens!
