The d3wrestle.com Wrestler of the Week is Matt Lackman of Alvernia. Lackman won the Middle Atlantic Conference Championship at 165 lbs. this past weekend and helped his team to a 3rd place finish in the event. Lackman made his way to the finals with a tech fall and a pin where he met 2x NCAA qualifier Eric Hutchinson of York. The fourth-ranked Lackman prevailed 6-2 over #9 Hutchinson to take the 165 lbs. crown.
Lackman, a sophomore from Wernersville, Pennsylvania, is currently 21-1 on the year for the Golden Wolves. He has won championships at the Alvernia Invitational and MAC Championships, and he was 2nd at the Racich Rumble at Ursinus. Last season, Lackman finished 3-0 in limited action due to COVID-19, giving him a career record of 24-1 to date. Alvernia is next in action for duals Friday against Penn College and Saturday against Messiah.
There are 1,098 schools in the NCAA. Division I has 350 schools, Division II has 310 schools, and Division III leads the way with 438 schools, close to 40% of the total membership. Keep that number in mind.
Tomorrow, the member schools of the NCAA will vote on the newly written NCAA Constitution. You can read the 20 page document here if you like. Included in that document is the following passage:
Article 3. Finance A. Resources will be allocated to the three divisions to provide standard membership services, including championships. Division II will receive 4.37% and Division III will receive 3.18% of all operating revenue sources, as agreed on January 9, 1996
Division III receives 3.18% of the NCAA’s revenue each year, and that percentage has not changed in 25 years. Even though Division III has 41% more schools than Division II, it receives less than 3/4 the revenue. Division I schools are hesitant to agree to increasing these percentages, since the schools in those divisions raise almost none of the revenue. Over 90% of the NCAA’s revenue each year comes from television contracts for March Madness. However, it is unclear why Division II, a smaller group of schools and athletes should have a dramatically larger piece of the pie. The 3.18% allocated to Division III has not kept up with the cost of providing acceptable championship experiences, as most starkly shown last season when the NCAA simply canceled Division III winter championships rather than pay for them. Division I and Division II managed to conduct championships for their winter athletes without a problem.
Division III schools are being told they should step up and vote for the new constitution and lock in the paltry 3.18% number for the future, but they do not have to listen. Approving the new constitution requires a 2/3 supermajority vote. Each school and conference gets one vote. The 438 Division III schools and 43 voting conferences combine to make up almost exactly 40% of the votes. Division III alone can stop the constitution from passing, and this is exactly what the member schools should do. They should fight for a bigger piece of the revenue allocated to DII and DIII. There are 128 more schools and over 60,000 more athletes in Division III than in Division II, yet Division III is allocated over $13 million less this year. Division III spends 75% of its revenue on championships. Imagine how the experience of the athletes could be improved with another $9-10 million dollars available (the DIII wrestling championship budget is just under $470,000).
I hope that the schools in Division III are aware of this and willing to stand up for their schools and their division. The NCAA is made up of its member schools, so the member schools in Division III should fight hard to improve the athletic experience of their athletes. There is no reason to sit idly by and rubber stamp this constitution.
Tuesday Wilmington at Baldwin Wallace Mount Union at Muskingum Heidelberg at John Carroll Otterbein at Ohio Northern
Wednesday Gettysburg at McDaniel UW-Platteville at UW-Whitewater Pitt-Bradford at Thiel
Nebraska Wesleyan at Buena Vista is postponed, but Buena Vista is looking for a team to replace NWU on Wednesday.
Thursday Adrian at Trine Alma at Olivet Washington & Jefferson at Waynesburg MSOE at Aurora
Friday King’s at Delaware Valley UW-La Crosse at UW-Platteville Elmhurst at North Central Concordia Wisconsin at Lakeland Ferrum at Averett UW-Whitewater at UW-Stevens Point NJCU at TCNJ Gettysburg at Messiah Iowa Wesleyan at Cornell Elizabethtown at Johns Hopkins Millikin at North Central Alvernia at Penn College Cortland vs Nassau CCC and Niagara CCC
CWRU Tri (Hiram, Lake Erie) Castleton Quad (New England, NJCU, RIT) Trinity Quad (Johnson & Wales, WPI, Roger Williams) Williams Tri (Bridgewater State, Hunter)
The d3wrestle.com Wrestler of the Week is Cody Baldridge of North Central. Baldridge helped lead the Cardinals to a 3rd place finish at the NWCA National Duals last week. He won all three of his matches at 197 lbs. on the weekend including a 6-4 win over #1 ranked Isaac Lahr of UW-La Crosse and a 20-5 tech fall over 2x NCAA qualifier Tommy Wrzesien of Johnson & Wales. Baldridge’s performance followed up a 4th place finish at the Matmen Open the previous week.
Baldridge, a senior from Morris, Illinois, is currently 19-3 on the season. He was ranked 3rd prior to the last two weeks of action. Last season, he was 11-2 and won the NWCA DIII tournament championship at 197 lbs. In 2019 and 2020, he qualified for the NCAA Championships. His career record is 81-17, and he was named the CCIW Wrestler of the Week for the second time.
North Central takes on CCIW foe Millikin Friday night at home.
Be sure to check on the status of individual matches as they approach. Schedules are fluid right now with cancellations and rescheduled duals.
Wednesday Fontbonne at Lincoln College Quad Gettysburg at Elizabethtown Thiel at Case Western Reserve NJCU at Muhlenberg Trinity at New England College
Thursday MSOE at Concordia Wisconsin Central at Loras UW-Stevens Point at Carthage UW-Whitewater at UW-La Crosse
Friday Virginia Duals (Friday & Saturday) Millikin at North Central Southern Maine at American International
NWCA National Duals – 8th seeded RIT takes out top seed Coe in the biggest upset of the day. Semifinals are RIT vs. Wabash and North Central vs. UW-La Crosse.
The Budd Whitehill Duals kick off tomorrow at Lycoming with 11 teams in 4 pools of 3 (ONU is filling in with a second team). The event initially had 16 teams, but a few have dropped out. Wrestling begins at 10:00am tomorrow and continues Saturday. Video will be available on all mats.
Group A: Castleton, Ohio Northern, Wilkes Group B: Ferrum, Ohio Northern, York Group C: Messiah, Penn College, Washington & Lee Group D: Ithaca, Lycoming, Southern Virginia
The original field of 24 has been pared down to 15 (as of 1:30pm Wednesday), as teams have dropped out for COVID-related reasons. The field is still tough with NWCA’s #1 (Coe), #3 (UW-La Crosse), #4 (North Central), #6 (Baldwin Wallace), #8 (Wabash), and #10 (Johnson & Wales) dual teams in the bracket (Dec. 29 Rankings). Wartburg and Augsburg were both set to compete before dropping out, and they had combined for all 19 of the previous National Duals titles. The 20th edition of the event will have a new champion outside of the two perennial powers.
First Round Matchups Coe vs. Mount St. Joseph Averett vs. RIT Wabash vs. Concordia Moorhead Dubuque vs. Baldwin Wallace North Central (Bye) Olivet vs. Johnson & Wales Millikin vs. Springfield UW-La Crosse vs. Adrian
Schedule – this is the original schedule for when there were more teams in the event. It will likely be adjusted. For example, the round of 32 listed for 9:00am tomorrow will not happen due to the reduced field.
DIII wrestling wrapped up 2021 yesterday at the Citrus Invitational and Matmen Open. Augsburg won five weights and the team title in Florida, while North Central’s Cody Baldridge finished in 4th place at the Matmen Open.
