OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

[boatcapt]

The MEC will formally recognize wrestling as an official conference sport starting this fall. And boy are they starting with a BANG! No fewer that four MEC schools are ranked in the top 20 of the DII The Open Mat Way to Early Rankings (https://news.theopenmat.com/college-...rankings/73460 ) including:

1. Notre Dame College
8. Wheeling Jesuit
19. West Liberty
20. UNC Pembroke

I note that this ranking was done after the WU news broke and their HC moved to WLU and number of top tier WU wrestlers transferred. Even though their program appears to be in total disarray, there must be some signs of life or the remaining All Americans would have transferred.

Obviously WLU is benefiting big time from the goings on at WU. WLU was a good program that was making incremental gains under their previous HC. The hiring of Irwin and the transfer of four wrestlers (including All American Cole Layla) have propelled WLU even higher. Couple that with what has been ranked as the #5 DII Wrestling Recruiting Class in the nation and it appears that the future is bright for the Toppers mat program.

[timbertopper]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

The MEC will formally recognize wrestling as an official conference sport starting this fall. And boy are they starting with a BANG! No fewer that four MEC schools are ranked in the top 20 of the DII The Open Mat Way to Early Rankings (https://news.theopenmat.com/college-...rankings/73460 ) including:

1. Notre Dame College
8. Wheeling Jesuit
19. West Liberty
20. UNC Pembroke

I note that this ranking was done after the WU news broke and their HC moved to WLU and number of top tier WU wrestlers transferred. Even though their program appears to be in total disarray, there must be some signs of life or the remaining All Americans would have transferred.

Obviously WLU is benefiting big time from the goings on at WU. WLU was a good program that was making incremental gains under their previous HC. The hiring of Irwin and the transfer of four wrestlers (including All American Cole Layla) have propelled WLU even higher. Couple that with what has been ranked as the #5 DII Wrestling Recruiting Class in the nation and it appears that the future is bright for the Toppers mat program.

Heard yesterday that Wheeling (no longer Jesuit) may not be fielding a wrestling team this year.

[boatcapt]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

Heard yesterday that Wheeling (no longer Jesuit) may not be fielding a wrestling team this year.

I saw an article on The Open Mat in which the author said he had heard that as a rumor but no one could confirm. I note that there are a couple of All Americans that are still there and they have mentioned nothing on their Twitter about either transferring or the program being suspended. One would think they would mention something big like that!! Doesn't mean they aren't going to suspend the program, just that maybe they haven't decided yet.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

Two former Wheeling Jesuit wrestlers -- 2019 NCAA Division II National Champions Tyler Warner and Connor Craig -- have transferred to UPJ.

Massive gain for an already strong UPJ program.

[Columbuseer]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

Heard yesterday that Wheeling (no longer Jesuit) may not be fielding a wrestling team this year.

Would not be surprised given the latest transfers of 2 NCAA division 2 champions.
The max number of full-time equivalent scholarships for wrestling in D2 is 9, I think.
Wonder if the freed up scholarships will be re-allocated to basketball or football?
Here is data I found on a forum on the cost of a wrestling program from 2014:
Source: http://board.themat.com/index.php?/t...ng-financials/



Using those numbers a d2 school might save approximately $300K per year if they did not reallocate. Of that, the average coaching savings is about $70K per year.

This data is for NCAA Division-I wrestling programs during the 2013 fiscal year. It is broken into school type, based on football program, and is reported as the median value for that group.



School Type / (Wrestling) Generated Revenue / (Wrestling) Expenses /

FBS / $151,000 / $811,000 /

FCS / $134,000 / $505,000 /

No Football / $44,000 / $585,000 /





School Type / (Wrestling) Head Coach / (Wrestling) All Assistants / (Wrestling) Admins

FBS / $126,000 / $136,000 / $6,000

FCS / $106,000 / $90,000 / $0

No Football / $91,000 / $54,000 / $0





Generated revenues are produced by the athletics department and include ticket sales, radio and television receipts, alumni contributions, guarantees, royalties, NCAA distributions and other revenue sources that are not dependent upon institutional entities outside the athletics department.



Since I figured people would ask about the other divisions or try to cite tuition dollars as a reason D1 programs should be added (since it has been successful at D3 and NAIA schools), I thought I would also provide the D2 and D3 data for comparison.



Division-II School Type (D2) / Generated Revenue / Expenses / Head Coach / All Assistants

Football / $31,100 / $266,100 / $54,100 / $15,200

No Football / $27,300 / $314,700 / $50,400 / $28,200





Division-III School Type (D3) / Generated Revenue / Expenses / Head Coach / All Assistants

Football / N/A / $105,000 / $42,600 / $10,300

No Football / N/A / $81,600 / $18,000 / $7,000

[timbertopper]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

Apparently some question now whether the school will even open in August. Local TV station reported that the Trustees were meeting today about "the future of the university."

[Columbuseer]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

Apparently some question now whether the school will even open in August. Local TV station reported that the Trustees were meeting today about "the future of the university."

Very sad. All small schools are at risk , but they may have waited too long to act, where they were past the tipping point where the cure (scaling back to 7 majors) kills the patient (student enrollment numbers).
Hope the trustees find a viable path to survival.

[boatcapt]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

Apparently some question now whether the school will even open in August. Local TV station reported that the Trustees were meeting today about "the future of the university."

According to the reporter, they were (did) discuss the name change and the financial future which seems appropriate. I didn't take from the report that they were questioning weather the school should open in August.

[Columbuseer]

Re: OT: MEC Starts Wrestling With a Bang!

According to the reporter, they were (did) discuss the name change and the financial future which seems appropriate. I didn't take from the report that they were questioning weather the school should open in August.

Yep, you are right, Boat. I listened to it after I posted and both agenda topics seem perfectly normal for their financial exigency situation.
Likely does not affect WJU, but I did see where an independent auditor was appointed to provide a transparent examination of the books of the diocese (WJU's benefactor). May not have any impact on their financial future as there were many unrelated financial improprieties in the diocese that will demand the focus of the auditor.