If this does fall through, will this be a Dana college like exodus? Where may they end up?
Good question. Hasn't coach Denney coached several of the other college coaches there in Nebraska? I am thinking Manning and Bauer of UNK both come to mind. Maybe another DII will just spring up and add wrestling in the area ala Midland with NAIA swooping up the Dana kids, and then finishing a great year with 3 national finalists and a top 10 showing! I could also see kids maybe going to NAIA Bethany College which just added wrestling and is going to be coached by Jacob Marrs a former UNO standout. But first thing is first, nothing is official yet in UNO being totally done, I believe a team in California dropped wrestling and was saved late in the game. A decision should come fast though to ensure adequate assurance of recruitment/retention of new and current student athletes.
Here is my big question...How much revenue does the city of Omaha make the week of the Kaufmann Brand Open which is billed as the largest open tournament in the Nation? Say 30 teams bring 30 guys...then each team puts 4 in a room for hotels and say a hotel runs $80 a night, that is $18,000 alone brought in because a wrestling tournament is in town! Say 1/3rd of the 900 wrestlers have someone get a room to spend the night before or after a long day of wrestling (300 x $80)= $24,000. Combined between athletes and spectators you are at $42,000 just for lodging. Now lets say just 2 meals are eaten over the weekend by the 900 wrestlers, 100 coaches, 300 fans and a meal is $8 a piece. 2 meals at $16 x 1300= $20,800 alone for that! I would get area merchants to come and fight for the team!
