Lehigh Sports Forum

Right after that EIWA's at Stabler, there was so much hope w/ the B&W team going to the NCAA's.
Josh's finals w/ Monday was devastating... man on fire.
And Kutler too.
Sad turn of events that happened afterwards.
D3

>>>>>>>That team was ready for a good NCAAs——Josh, Kutler, Paetzell and Wood plus a few other guys capable of winning matches.

Covid threw that team a real monkey wrench.

Next year becomes very interesting if Josh gains another year.

I'm very pleased that Josh made it onto the podium; I can't think of anyone who deserved it more who hadn't already been there.

Like everyone else, I thought I watched the final 30 seconds or so of Josh's career on ESPN. There's never any telling what the NCAA will do, so I guess it's possible that an appeal for a medical waiver can succeed. But Humph has wrestled four full years and all the guys who lost the NCAA tournament at the end of 2020 were SOOL. I'm skeptical that a waiver will be granted to give Josh a full fifth season. He's accomplished plenty, so I hope he can be satisfied with that if the NCAA says no.

If it is granted, Josh becomes the favorite for the Fletcher Award at the 2024 EIWA tournament. It would complete the set -- he's already won the Sheridan and OW awards.

Josh returning would be a great opportunity for him to assume a real leadership role in preparing him for a fire successful career. His riding ability should become a model for other Lehigh wrestlers to learn as it is estremely successful.

McGonagle looked like he picked up some of this skill set this year. Josh can leave his mark at Lehigh as NCAA champ & a room full of tough riding teammates to carry on this legacy.

Lehigh Valley Sports journalist also alludes to a remote possibility of Hump receiving a MRS for 2020-21

https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports ... tling.html

>>>>>>>A few comments:

To Jdalu: your comment that Josh wrestled four full years is not accurate—— he was denied an NCAA appearance due to Covid.

Also, I believe Josh would have an add’l year eligibility had he wrestled the Covid ‘free’ year and took the medical redshirt the next year————— so why punish him for being hurt the Covid season.

Lastly, the NCAA, imo, seems to have become more athlete friendly in recent years with transfer rights, medical redshirts, etc.

Agree with your take on this FGuy

FloridaGuy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:11 am >>>>>>>A few comments:

To Jdalu: your comment that Josh wrestled four full years is not accurate—— he was denied an NCAA appearance due to Covid.

Also, I believe Josh would have an add’l year eligibility had he wrestled the Covid ‘free’ year and took the medical redshirt the next year————— so why punish him for being hurt the Covid season.

Lastly, the NCAA, imo, seems to have become more athlete friendly in recent years with transfer rights, medical redshirts, etc.

Wrestling in the conference makes it a full season. Once you wrestled in the second half of the season you don't get another chance for the year. That was slightly changed this year.

FloridaGuy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:11 am >>>>>>>A few comments:

To Jdalu: your comment that Josh wrestled four full years is not accurate—— he was denied an NCAA appearance due to Covid.

Also, I believe Josh would have an add’l year eligibility had he wrestled the Covid ‘free’ year and took the medical redshirt the next year————— so why punish him for being hurt the Covid season.

Lastly, the NCAA, imo, seems to have become more athlete friendly in recent years with transfer rights, medical redshirts, etc.

I wrote my last post after searching around to find any similar cases, and I came up empty. What I did find was an NCAA release from a year or so ago that stated that the usual eligibility situation is "five years to wrestle four". Due to Covid, that's been temporarily changed to "six years to wrestle four."

The NCAA didn't grant wrestlers who were seniors in 2019-20 an extra year. Jordan Kutler didn't get to come back in 2021 because he'd been denied an opportunity to wrestle in the NCAA tournament in 2020. So (my interpretation) is that the NCAA views 2019-20 as a complete season. Josh wrestled that year, so it's a complete season. So he's wrestled four.

I agree that if Josh had competed in 2020-21 then he'd have been able to compete in five seasons -- just like Jordan Wood and others did. My suspicion is that if the NCAA counted 2020-21 against eligibility, many more athletes would have sat out the year (as Wood planned to do) and the championship tournaments would have been a joke. So the decision to offer a "free year" may have had more to do with salvaging championships (and championships' TV revenue) than with being fair to athletes.

Nowhere has the NCAA announced that athletes could bank the 2020-21 season and use it later. Nowhere has the NCAA announced a policy that it's really "six years to wrestle five." Granting Humph another year would amount to that. Granting him another year would also open up other possibilities -- athletes at schools that didn't compete in 2020-21 should also be eligible for a fifth year since they were not responsible for their failure to compete. Means we get to see Ivy athletes for another year, albeit at non-Ivy schools.

I would love to see Josh compete for another year. The fact that Lehigh is pursuing it means that they believe Josh has a case. The fact that he's never redshirted (my interpretation) helps that case. I believe that granting him an additional year would set a precedent. Does the NCAA want to set a precedent? We'll have to wait and see.

>>>>>>>> Well, maybe the NCAA didn’t formally announce wrestlers have six years to get five seasons ( with only four NCAA opportunities), but that has been the impact of their actions for Jordan Wood.

Hard to for the NCAA to take the position it was OK for Jordan but not for Josh.

And especially hard for the NCAA if there are other wrestlers with situations like Jordan’s.

Will be interesting to see how this turns out.