Agreed on your rankings Garcia - made me stop and think about what factors go into their success. I have a few areas that came to mind:
1. Recruiting locale - do they recruit nationwide or mostly local (which isn't bad if your "local" is full of studs
2. Recruiting talent - are you bringing in national-level wrestlers or state-caliber guys
3. Development - once wrestlers come to the program, do they show further progression
Thinking of a few of these teams, here's how I see a few of them (mostly, although there are exceptions). Would like to know how you see these as you are more familiar with the college scene, or anyone else's thoughts (Disco, Thor)...
Penn State - National recruiting, High Level, High Progression
Iowa - Mixed recruiting, Mixed level of guys, Mixed progression - to me they develop to "Iowa-style" wrestling
Ohio State - National recruiting, High Level, not sure what I think on progression here - mixed I guess?
Minnesota - Local recruiting, Mixed level, Med/High progression
Michigan - National recruiting, High level wrestlers, Med/High progression
Wisconsin - Local recruiting, Medium level talent, Medium progression
.....
Purdue - Mixed recruiting, Medium talent, Med/High progression
Indiana - Local recruiting, Medium talent, Low progression
Stacked up against other teams in Big 10 - I like where Purdue has gone with progression of their wrestlers - I think they get the most out of the talent they have. They have gone more national with their recruiting, but not necessarily bringing in super high level guys. I do think that Neinhaus may be an exception here - he's got a high ceiling I think. Kendall Coleman has looked great too but seems to have plateaued this season (just realized while typing that "plateaued" has 4 vowels in a row! ). I thought Streck or
Indiana is getting a lot of local guys, but like Purdue hasn't landed the highest level in-state wrestlers. The progression of their wrestlers doesn't seem to be great to me at this point, but I am hoping that Escobedo can turn that around. Washington has adapted very well to the college wrestling scene and he is the primary bright point on the squad.
For our state colleges, the tipping point will be getting maybe two of the highest in-state guys to go there, and to have success. I had hopes that Allred, Seltzer, Parris or Carroll would choose one of them. Mendez and Lee seemed to be a foregone conclusion to go out of state