On April 11th, John Smith sent the wrestling world into a frenzy as he announced he was stepping down from his position as head coach of Oklahoma State University after 33 years at the helm. Smith was synonymous with Cowboy wrestling, as he won a pair of NCAA titles in the familiar orange and black before (and during) his run at six straight World/Olympic titles. After he was done competing, Smith led OSU to five team titles and produced 33 individual national champions. 
While Smith’s retirement seemed sudden, it wasn’t totally unexpected. Most observers thought that Smith was aware he only had a few years remaining when he brought Coleman Scott in as the team’s Associate Head Coach prior to the 2023-24 season. Also a Cowboy alum, Scott left his post as the head coach at the University of North Carolina to head back to Stillwater. With a coach of Scott’s caliber and in a good situation like North Carolina - willing to step down and take a lower position on the Oklahoma State coaching staff - he appeared to be the head coach in-waiting. 
Head coach in-waiting may have been the agreement spoken or unspoken between Smith and Scott. Regardless, when Smith stepped down many expected a quick transition to Scott as the program’s next head coach. Sure, you have to abide by state laws and open the job up publicly, but that’s a mere formality, right? 
That has not been the case in this instance. A firm that handles coaching searches was brought in by the Oklahoma State administration and they have spearheaded a hunt much greater than most anticipated. Names like Casey Cunningham and Pat Popolizio have appeared. Cunningham doesn’t have a link to Oklahoma State; however, he’s the top lieutenant for Cael Sanderson - overseeing the Penn State dynasty, so why not? Popolizio is an Oklahoma State alum who has gone on to make NC State a perennial top-ten team and an NCAA trophy-winning squad in 2018. 
Now taking it a step further than Cunningham and Popolizio is the mention of Olympic gold medalist David Taylor. Reportedly, big-money boosters are very into the idea of Taylor making his collegiate coaching debut by leading Oklahoma State. They had representatives fly to Pennsylvania in an effort to court Taylor. 
Before we go any further. I’m usually against the idea of hiring Taylor/Kyle Dake/Jordan Burroughs/Terry Brands for any coaching vacancy that arises. 99% of the time, it just won’t work. Oftentimes, the schools are unable to come up with the money that it would take to hire one of them, plus a talented coaching staff. It also has to be a situation that interests one of these superstars. 

Since Taylor is the one in question here, we’ll describe why it’s not a slam-dunk “yes” on his end. Taylor has a successful M2 Training Center just outside of State College, Pennsylvania. His wife, Kendra, has opened up a business in town. They’ve recently purchased a farm and are getting accustomed to that way of life. Additionally, Taylor’s parents have moved into the area. He’s also a Penn State alum and has been seen as a potential successor to Cael - whenever he decides to hang up the coaching whistle. 
It’s crazy how the timing of this opening has worked in favor of perhaps luring Taylor to Stillwater. Had he won the Olympic Trials and was preparing for another gold medal in Paris, this could have been a moot point. And add this to the previous paragraph - Taylor hasn’t publicly announced a decision regarding his competition status. Taking the Oklahoma State head coaching position would mean that he’s done, too. At 33 and fresh off a loss at the Trials, he may be anyway. 
I said that 99% of the situations in college wrestling wouldn’t work for a first-time superstar head coach. Oklahoma State falls in that other 1%. With Taylor’s name recognition, his ties into the youth/HS wrestling scene, and Oklahoma State’s fanbase and legacy - if all things go right, it’s a move that could shake the foundation of the Penn State dynasty. Should Taylor get hired, I’m confident he’d assemble an experienced staff that helps fill in the gaps as he learns on the job. 
And as far as the potential for following Cael at Penn State. Sanderson is only 44 years old. It’s not out of the question for him to be going strong for another 15 or 16 years. That would make Taylor 48 or 49 waiting for his potential “dream job.” And do you want to put your eggs in that basket? As we’ve seen with Oklahoma State/Scott - there’s no such thing as a guarantee. 
While Taylor is the flashy hire that could give the Oklahoma State program a shot in the arm - those closest to the program seem to be behind the idea of moving Scott up to the head coaching position. The case for Scott is compelling in its own right. 
While Oklahoma State didn’t have the greatest NCAA Tournament in Kansas City, they did go 14-1 in dual competition and were better than most outside of Stillwater initially anticipated. With Scott being a new face on staff and one that led his own program, one has to assume he was given a greater responsibility and some of their 2023-24 success should be attributed to him. 
Scott also should get some credit for the 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes, as each features a wrestler ranked in the top two overall for his respective class. 
Scott’s coaching experience includes a five-tournament run at NCAA’s in which his North Carolina team placed in the top-20 each season and improved upon the previous finish each time - topping out at #12 in 2023. Each of those five teams had multiple All-Americans. Scott’s run also saw Austin O’Connor capture a pair of NCAA titles and become one of the top wrestlers in Tar Heel history. 
There’s also the idea of keeping the job in the family. Scott, a 2008 NCAA champion for Smith, certainly represents that ideal. He was brought out of redshirt as an insurance policy for the legendary 2005 team that featured five national champions and outdistanced Michigan by 70 points. He’s a face that’s already ingrained in the Cowboy alumni and supporters. 
On the flip side, Iowa became Iowa by going out and hiring Dan Gable from the rival Iowa State Cyclones. Penn State became Penn State after enticing Sanderson to leave Iowa State. Even Scott is aware of stepping outside of your comfort zone and exploring new ideas. He hired former opponent, Tony Ramos, as his right-hand-man at North Carolina. Even to this day, it’s very rare to have a staff that includes grads from both Iowa and Oklahoma State. So hiring a coach, just because he’s an alum isn’t the be-all, end-all. 
North Carolina has become a great destination for wrestlers largely because of the work done by Scott and his staff members. That being said, the tradition at UNC can’t compare to Oklahoma State. Seeing what Scott did in Chapel Hill, could you imagine what he could accomplish in Stillwater?
Circling back to the Cunningham/Popolizio names. Both would be considered huge hires were they to be interested in the position. Each also has reasons why they may be content in their current positions. 
The amount of chatter that has come out regarding this coaching search over the weekend leads you to believe that some big news is on the horizon; perhaps this week. Whatever the decision, it will be one that impacts the rest of the college wrestling landscape and it should be a win for Oklahoma State wrestling.

Since July 1, 2021 Name, Image, and Likeness, also known as NIL, has been one of the biggest conversation pieces surrounding NCAA wrestling. 
NIL is a way for student-athletes to use their name, image, and likeness to make a profit. The NCAA policy is athletes can engage in NIL activities if they follow the state laws where their current school is located, athletes not in NIL states can still participate in NIL activities without breaking NCAA rules, and athletes can seek professional service providers for their NIL activities. Student-athletes should be reporting their NIL activities to their current schools, too, to stay consistent with the rules. I reside in Pennsylvania and our NIL rules have been signed into law here. Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) has permitted NIL in their high schools as well. Now, each school can oversee their NIL deals and have a right to object if they do not agree with them. Honestly, schools should be working with their compliance departments to make sure they aren’t breaking any rules. There are also NIL collectives where donors pool together their money to compensate athletes, which we are very aware of. 
With all that being said, NIL sucks. NIL has completely changed the way coaches recruit and develop their athletes. I hate seeing wrestling come to this. Do not get me wrong, I am not against the wrestlers getting their cut of the action. They should be allowed to promote themselves and make money off of it, but it is a total slap in the face to smaller universities. 
Nowadays, these small universities “suck” just because they cannot afford to pay for half their lineup and then some. I am convinced this will stop some wrestling fans from being fans. You are going to continuously see the same team and the same guys win time and time again. There will be no competition because no one has that kind of NIL money to pour into their athletes, which causes a lot of coaches to feel guilty. It’s like when you were a kid and you wanted to play with your siblings and you constantly lost and it just wasn't fun anymore. Fans will start tuning into the sports where the athletes get paid by their organizations instead of NIL. Smaller schools could build a solid squad pre-NIL. Now teams have to worry about their developed athletes straying off to the portal because they all of a sudden are being noticed by the other bigger schools. It now has turned into “Oh, you pay your National Qualifier/All-American that much? I can pay them way more than that.” It’s one giant “who sells the most gets the most prizes” competition. It is humorous to me that these kids weren’t noticed by any of these schools before or that these big schools didn’t believe in them then, and now that they add the title of National Qualifier or All-American, everyone wants you. So what, you don’t believe in the development you had at your smaller school and it’s not getting you your goals, but you'll magically reach every other goal at your new school? Get real. 
 The NCAA argued for years that NIL would ruin collegiate athletics. They might have been spot-on with that assumption. Collectives have been the main topic in NIL discussions because people have accused them of stealing recruits from college with promises of a higher payout. Student-athletes are entering the portal and being offered six figures to come to certain schools. This raises my concern about money in college athletics. Are we teaching student-athletes that money is the key to success? Are we teaching the future recruits of college wrestling that loyalty only means so much until you dangle a few hundred in front of their face? You can be loyal to a fault? Do relationships have any meaning in college wrestling?
 I hear all too often that it’s just business and you have to treat it as such. What do you know about business at 20 years old? Are you an employee now or are you a college athlete? I see kids committing to schools all the time, and it is no longer thinking about the things they will do for that university. Everyone now thinks about how long they will stay before getting offered a bag to leave. Coaches have to worry about if they can keep their athletes because of how good they are. Do you know how foolish it sounds to say now that coaches have to worry about recruiting and developing good wrestlers because as soon as someone notices, it is all over? It is overwhelming for the athletes, too. You beat someone no one expects you to beat and all of a sudden everyone is calling your phone and hyping you up or offering you to go somewhere else. That takes a small step towards mental health, but that is a different conversation. It is okay to say no. 
I have never been a college athlete, never even played a sport growing up. I picked up different hobbies growing up, though. When I was in high school I was heavily into the journalism world, I even started college as a journalism major. Everyone…and I mean everyone told me there’s no money in journalism. I kept the course because I was passionate about my writing. I changed my major at least six or seven times after that, and not because I listened to everyone around me reminding me that journalism is a poor industry. I then went heavily into the education field. Everyone reminded me again that there is no money in education, I wasn’t in it for the money. I was in it strictly to help make a difference in the lives of the children I was around. Now I am in a deep dive in college athletics, obviously wrestling-related. I wear many different hats in the wrestling world. 
When I first joined InterMat, everyone made it clear that this was our fun job because there’s just not enough money where everyone can make a living, so we get boring jobs to tie us down. I tell everyone and I will forever tell everyone, that wrestling does not pay your bills unless you are winning gold medals. The point of my backstory here is that money is not everything. It sure can help, but it is not everything. Your experiences, hardships, being the underdog, or being the top dog in a small program will mean more to you in the end. Some people will tell their kids stories of them transferring four or more times because of “better” opportunities, but be real. High-caliber transfers in the portal who are just All-American for the first time that season or ones who have done it multiple times are NOT leaving their universities for “better” opportunities. They’re leaving because someone’s millionaire donor hit up their high school or club coach from high school and offered them a bag to leave their school. 
In the direction that NIL is going in, it has now become a threat to college wrestling and quality education. While it is intended to provide opportunities for the wrestlers, the implementation of NIL opens the floodgates to issues, from inequities among athletes to exploitation by agents and businesses. It shifts the focus from getting a valuable education to creating a system that prioritizes profit over the development of student-athletes. The long-term effects of NIL must be carefully considered, and solutions that preserve collegiate athletics' integrity while protecting student-athletes' welfare must be pursued.

This morning, multiple sources have confirmed that the WWE has released 2020(1) Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson. 
Shortly after winning his second NCAA title, in 2022, Steveson turned his attention to the professional wrestling/sports entertainment industry and signed with the WWE. 
In 2023, Steveson was granted permission to wrestle in the US Open, which he won, and then Final X. At Final X, Steveson defeated Mason Parris, 5-2 and 5-0 in consecutive matches to secure a spot on the World team. Shortly before the World Championships, Steveson had to withdraw from the team to focus on business with the WWE. Parris took his place and came home from Belgrade, Serbia with a World bronze medal. 
During his time at WWE, Steveson was promoted on several marquee pay-per-view events and “drafted” to Raw; however, he did not have much mat time in front of the camera.
No specific reason was given for Steveson’s release; however, longtime pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer suggested that an “inability to connect with the audience” may be a factor. 
While the timing of Steveson’s release is unfortunate; two weeks after the Olympic Trials, he wasn’t the only one let go by the WWE. At least 11 other members of WWE’s developmental NXT brand were released on Friday, as well. One of them is a 2022 NCAA DII national champion Darrell Mason of Minnesota State. 
Steveson should have plenty of options available in the future. If he wants to continue pursuing a career in pro wrestling, he could hone his craft in a smaller promotion. Steveson has trained in the past with NCAA/WWE/UFC star Brock Lesnar and has hinted at a future in mixed martial arts. Of course, with the Final X wins over the eventual world bronze medalist in 2023, Steveson still is capable of beating anyone in the world if focused on freestyle wrestling.