Next year…

[Wrestling Guru]

Spot on!

Until all the whiners on here start ponying up millions of dollars, the Badger wrestling program is finished.  If you haven't succeeded in life to chip that much money into the booster club, find someone who can.  McIntosh understands, that is why Bono is still there.

NIL and $$ are not why Badgers are ranked 44th.  NIl is not why Badgers are having more athletes leaving then entering via the portal, having graduates not sticking around for RTC or college coaching positions (See Maylor and Lamont hired on elsewhere), and why their recruiting has bottomed out.

-Past posts show Badgers around 15-18th in nation for financial support via the University AND RTC.  That alone should show they should be better then 44th.
-WI has a wrestling fan base willing to support UW for the right coach and team.  Mizz vs. UNI at a high school selling out in a week and plenty of D3/D2 WI programs are getting great support.  No reason with the right coach UW would be the same.
-Yes we will never complete with the PSU/IA and maybe 5-10 other teams financially.  But the Badgers are ranked 44th!!  Mid-Major teams and other historically non-wrestling programs are flying past the Badgers with the exact same NIL/NCAA issues.  SDSU, little rock, WVU, Penn, Campbell, WY, purdue, Indiana, Oregon State, northern colorado, Maryland, Navy, Cal Poly, Bucknell, NW, Central Michigan, App State, Columbia, and Drexel are all ranked higher then Badgers via wrestlstat.
-Other postings pointed out Badger wrestling has minimal to no processes in place to get $$.  Has Bono attempted any other means other then steak frys and raffles (that have been done for years)?  If he is trying to get big $$ donors (like UW-Eau Claire has done for their new facilities), he has obviously failed. 

I donated to RTC Bono's first for a bit then saw the writing on the wall.  Look forward to resuming once he's gone.  If McIntosh can't see how poorly UW wrestling is managed and the lost potential with Bono there it is on the Badgers if the program fails. 

I am not asking for a top 5-10 wrestling team but Wrestlestat having Maryland and MSU as toss up duals should be all you need to see to know a change is needed.

[Wrestling Guru]

NIL is a great opportunity for coaches to think outside the box and become more creative with ideas that will help drive success. Continuing to just blame NIL for every single problem of the program instead of trying innovative things to move forward is deficit thinking and will only lead to continued destruction of a program that has such high potential.

[Tuco]

NIL is a great opportunity for coaches to think outside the box and become more creative with ideas that will help drive success. Continuing to just blame NIL for every single problem of the program instead of trying innovative things to move forward is deficit thinking and will only lead to continued destruction of a program that has such high potential.

Why would a great coach come to UW without a strong booster club?  All I hear is we need an experienced coach that can draw in top talent.  As far as NIL, it is a recent addition to athletes. 

[Wrestling Guru]

I think from a leadership lens it would be a great way to build a program that is struggling into something great.  With success comes more opportunity for partnerships, money, etc. 

I think using NIL as a talking point to recent regression in the program is fair, but it is not the only reason. 

[Gutwrench]

Maybe UW should really think outside the box to move forward.  Since college athletics has become a professional sport, maybe the wrestling program can operate like one.  At the top of the program is a General Manager or Head of Operations.  They are in charge of all the "business" side of things such as fund raising, NIL, promotions, scheduling, etc, and it doesn't have to be a "wrestling person" per se.  Bring in someone from the business world, or bring in someone from another sport. Someone that has demonstrated success navigating these types of situations and challenges would be great.  We as fans are calling for innovation and the need to adapt to the times.  I think that's going to be huge challenge for a lot of coaches who at their core just want to coach wrestling.

UW then should hire a head coach that just worries about the wrestling side of things.

This would require some pay structure changes as I would expect a pay decrease for the head coach position, but maybe overall this could be a great situation for the program as a whole.

What do you all think?

[charteroak1]

Gut, Adrian Wojnarowski just was hire at St. Bonaventure for basketball and Butler hired former Bucks G-league GM.  Alabama football has Courtney Morgan pulling in 825K as their GM.  It's going to have to happen as all of NCAA Sports has become "Semi-Pro".

Now, how soon will UW Wrestling take that step, that is a good question and I don't think we'll see an answer any time soon. 

Put the GM and HC on a performance based/commission pay structure.  We might have guys that will take us to the next level or asking you "Would you like fries with that" 

[asdf]

The following Big Ten Wrestling programs DO NOT have Director of Operations:

-Michigan State
-Indiana
-Northwestern
-UW BADGERS

Ohio State by far leads the Big Ten in alternative coaches on staff--Dir of operations, assistant director of operations, director of wrestling sport science, and director of recruitment.

Rutgers has "director of sports admin." position that directly works on fundraising.

PSU is only one that directly references NIL--they have a "director of NIL" individual listed on Roster.

Interesting side note-Alex Dieringer is listed on Mich Coaching staff as "Director of recruiting and video coordinator"

[hornbuckleb]

Gut, Adrian Wojnarowski just was hire at St. Bonaventure for basketball and Butler hired former Bucks G-league GM.  Alabama football has Courtney Morgan pulling in 825K as their GM.  It's going to have to happen as all of NCAA Sports has become "Semi-Pro".

Now, how soon will UW Wrestling take that step, that is a good question and I don't think we'll see an answer any time soon. 

Put the GM and HC on a performance based/commission pay structure.  We might have guys that will take us to the next level or asking you "Would you like fries with that" 

Not happening with UW Wrestling unless the new DI NCAA 2025/2026 rule changes are reversed.

[hornbuckleb]

The following Big Ten Wrestling programs DO NOT have Director of Operations:

-Michigan State
-Indiana
-Northwestern
-UW BADGERS

Ohio State by far leads the Big Ten in alternative coaches on staff--Dir of operations, assistant director of operations, director of wrestling sport science, and director of recruitment.

Rutgers has "director of sports admin." position that directly works on fundraising.

PSU is only one that directly references NIL--they have a "director of NIL" individual listed on Roster.

Interesting side note-Alex Dieringer is listed on Mich Coaching staff as "Director of recruiting and video coordinator"

If the DI NCAA rule changes for 2025/2026 go through as is these Big 10 wrestling programs will likely be dropped unfortunately.

-Michigan State
-Indiana
-Northwestern
-UW BADGERS

[Wrestling Guru]

I like this idea. It puts people in positions to be successful.

Maybe UW should really think outside the box to move forward.  Since college athletics has become a professional sport, maybe the wrestling program can operate like one.  At the top of the program is a General Manager or Head of Operations.  They are in charge of all the "business" side of things such as fund raising, NIL, promotions, scheduling, etc, and it doesn't have to be a "wrestling person" per se.  Bring in someone from the business world, or bring in someone from another sport. Someone that has demonstrated success navigating these types of situations and challenges would be great.  We as fans are calling for innovation and the need to adapt to the times.  I think that's going to be huge challenge for a lot of coaches who at their core just want to coach wrestling.

UW then should hire a head coach that just worries about the wrestling side of things.

This would require some pay structure changes as I would expect a pay decrease for the head coach position, but maybe overall this could be a great situation for the program as a whole.

What do you all think?