Cornell head coach Mike Grey (Left) and two-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis (Right). Photo credit: Tony Rotundo/ WrestlersAreWarriors.com
The landscape of college athletics that we once knew is changing rapidly.
Since 2018, the transfer portal has added a semblance of free agency into NCAA athletics for the first time in the organization’s history. Furthermore, recent advancements concerning the usually stringent name, image, and likeness (NIL) policies that have governed NCAA sport since its inception are now beginning to loosen. Soon, as early as the 2021-22 season, NCAA athletes may be able to profit from their name, their attributes, and their unique intangibles.
Bowl subdivision football and men’s basketball are the most talked-about sports regarding these NIL developments, given the generous television contracts concerning college football and men’s basketball. Both of these sports have morphed into billion-dollar businesses in their own right over the last two decades. Plus, football and basketball are the sports that traditionally have the biggest, most recognizable names within college athletics, like Tim Tebow, Johnny Manziel, Trevor Lawrence, Zion Williamson, Cage Cunningham, and others.
Still, it is intriguing to see how wrestling is currently and will continue to be impacted by these opportunities to profit from a wrestler’s persona and ability on the mat while still a college competitor.
I don’t expect the most recognizable wrestlers in the sport, such as Spencer Lee, Gable Steveson, AJ Ferrari, Daton Fix, or Yianni Diakomihalis, to garner as large of a deal as a Big Ten or SEC quarterback. Still, wrestlers, especially the elite freestylers, will benefit by being Olympic hopefuls and even Olympic medalists during their college careers.
Although I am happy that developments will allow athletes (especially wrestlers) to earn back some of that same financial benefit they bring to their university, I am fearful these forms of compensation could tarnish the NCAA wrestling product. Here is how:
It’s no secret that for college wrestlers, NCAA titles are excellent. However, for wrestlers like Spencer, Gable, Yianni, Daton, and others of similar ability, the Olympic gold medal is the ultimate prize, the top athletic priority.
Similarly, wrestlers and other Olympic sport athletes will have an increased value to potential sponsors, endorsers, marketers, and other brands because they are known internationally rather than just on the national level within the United States. Simply put, the more global the stage that an athlete competes on, the greater visibility that he or she has. With greater visibility to consumers, these athletes are of greater value to brands and marketers. Thus, elite Olympic-level athletes theoretically reach a broader audience than non-Olympic sport athletes and may be of greater financial value in terms of revenue generation potential for their sponsor.
These issues become a little dicey when you consider the competing (and sometimes opposing) interests of a big sponsor compared to those interests of a college coach or university.
To further illustrate this quandary of competing interests, let’s try a hypothetical, shall we?
Say that Yianni signs a deal with Pepsi, for instance (this is an entirely random sponsor picked strictly for hypothetical purposes).
If he has the choice to compete in his Pepsi-branded gear for a full 20 or 30 matches during the Division I NCAA season, that’s great but warrants posing the following comparison:
Compare the exposure, brand recognition, and fincial gain Pepsi gets during college season versus the exposure, branding, and revenue generation potential Pepsi earns if Yianni competes internationally at an event overseas, which will stream to a global audience?
The branding potential of the international events far exceeds the college duals and opens.
While Cornell wrestling is a national brand, the sad reality is very little college wrestling appears on a national network outside of postseason play. Similarly, if you’re an athlete in a conference outside of the Big Ten Big 12 or ACC, the opportunities to be seen by a national (or global) audience are even fewer.
All this to say that that there will be pressure from sponsors to get their chosen athletes on the biggest stages possible. The bigger the setting, the more revenue generation or brand recognition benefit the sponsor will receive. Thus, sponsors may pressure athletes to participate in freestyle events instead of collegiate events when feasible. If this happens enough, it will cheapen the Division I product, much to the chagrin of fans.
NCAA wrestling fans want to see the best wrestlers on the mat as often as possible. Fans don’t like it when a healthy collegiate star is out of the starting 10 during a dual for any reason, let alone because he or she is competing overseas, as was the case with Kyle Snyder leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Why does this topic matters now, you ask?
According to a recent interview with FloWrestling at the end of May during Pan- Am Training Camp, Diakomihalis intimated that he might participate in an abbreviated NCAA schedule in 2021-22 so he can also get a few international competitions under his belt.
“I’m not sure if I’m going to keep wrestling full 40-match seasons or whatever, but the [Cornell] coaches have talked to me about maybe doing some freestyle during the year,” Diakomihalis said to FloWrestling’s Mark Bader. “So maybe I go to a tournament like Yarygin or Clubs Cup, I’m just naming tournaments. [It’s] just to keep my freestyle sharp and keep working toward that bigger goal.”
Let me start by saying that I understand why Yianni will compete in some freestyle events throughout the upcoming season. I also understand why Snyder did something similar in 2016 as well. That being said, there is no denying that the product on the Division I mat is better when guys like Yianni, Spencer, Gable, and Kyle are taking part in the dual.
Suppose big brands start to sponsor some of these elite NCAA wrestling stars. In that case, the student-athletes (especially the talented freestylers) might be pressured (or even financially incentivized) to partake in abbreviated college seasons in favor of additional international events where the exposure and revenue generation potential are higher for sponsors (and possible the student-athletes as well).
Should this hypothesized model become commonplace once NCAA athletes can profit legally profit from themselves, it would undoubtedly could easily tarnish the NCAA wrestling product. While it hasn't happened yet, it could in the very near future as the tenants of amateurism in the NCAA begin to shift in the coming months and years.
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