Outstanding coverage

What a weekend! Arguably, it was the biggest weekend of the year for college wrestling. It was qualifying weekend for NCAA Division I schools and the NCAA Division III and the NAIA held their national championships. Thousands of college wrestlers were on the mat vying for a trip to St Louis for the Division I Championships or competing for All-American status.

Media coverage of the week was exceptional. I am a minor contributor to the fledgling College Wrestling Network, a consortium of wrestling media that coordinated much of the week’s coverage and then hosted links to all the appropriate media sites. USA Wrestling covered the EIWA and Western Regional Tournaments and the NAIA Championships, intermat covered the EWL and Eastern Regional Tournaments, revwrestling was at the Big Ten Championships, Takedown Radio at Big Twelves and wrestling 411 provided excellent coverage of the Division III Championships. (Writer’s note – I highly recommend that you read Jason Bryant's current blog about his impressions of DIII’s).

Other outlets not associated with the College Wrestling Network also contributed. Andy Vogel’s d3wrestle.com Twittered from the US Cellular Center, the fan site HawkeyeNation gave Hawkeye fans outstanding coverage and, of course, the Big Ten Network broadcast the Big 10 finals live.

The weekend was not without its disappointments. The NCAA had promised fans a live webcast of the Division III finals and then dropped the ball. It frequently appears to fans that the NCAA really doesn’t care about wrestling. This is just another example of their dismissive attitude. Ironically, the Division I Wrestling Championship is one of the very few events that are profitable for the NCAA.

Here’s my question: Does this increase in coverage – most of which is on the web – have any negative side effects? The Iowa Conference has yet to release attendance figures for the Division III Championships, but by my “eyeball” count I suspect that numbers are down slightly this year. For the first two sessions of the Big Ten Championships the announced attendance was a little over 4,000 per session – not an impressive figure. By having an increased number of online outlets are we making it easier for fans to stay home?

The objective of all wrestling media, whether its Iowa Public Television, the College Wrestling Network, Wrestling 411, Takedown Radio, intermat or the magazines like WIN and Amateur Wrestling News, is to build interest in the sport. In the end we all hope that translates into more kids wrestling and more butts in seats at college wrestling events. Are we meeting that objective? I guess time will tell.