ADVERTISEMENT

NCAA changed some rules.

I don't like the changes to hands to the face. While fans, or even wrestlers, may not have liked the rule, there was no ambiguity about the rule. The changes switch the enforcement to a more subjective situation, which I feel will create more problems than did the way it was enforced last season.
 
I don't like the changes to hands to the face. While fans, or even wrestlers, may not have liked the rule, there was no ambiguity about the rule. The changes switch the enforcement to a more subjective situation, which I feel will create more problems than did the way it was enforced last season.
I’m actually all for more subjective leeway for refs in some situations—not sure yet about this one. And also, most people don’t seem to agree with me and prefer everything be black and white.
 
I’m actually all for more subjective leeway for refs in some situations—not sure yet about this one. And also, most people don’t seem to agree with me and prefer everything be black and white.
The problem with relaxing the rule is the change last year had the desired effect....stopping the hands to the face. I’m not for relaxing it because it worked.
 
I’m actually all for more subjective leeway for refs in some situations—not sure yet about this one. And also, most people don’t seem to agree with me and prefer everything be black and white.
Referees for the most part do not shine when things become more subjective.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Str8DBLz
The problem with relaxing the rule is the change last year had the desired effect....stopping the hands to the face. I’m not for relaxing it because it worked.
Did it work? Suriano and Fix had their hands surgically attached to each others' faces.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Str8DBLz
I would of preferred a warning first that couldn't be challenged and then a reviewable penalty point on the second infraction.

IMHO, that would be what I hope to see. I don;t like seeing a match decided based on hands to the face, however, I also don;t lke seeing wrestlers getting poked in the eye over and over again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Str8DBLz
The problem with relaxing the rule is the change last year had the desired effect....stopping the hands to the face. I’m not for relaxing it because it worked.

there's also the optics of relaxing the rule. it looks worse if you go from 'it's illegal to poke your opponent in the face ONCE' to 'it's illegal to poke your opponent in the face TWICE'
 
  • Like
Reactions: Str8DBLz
Regarding hands to the face, if I remember correctly it was split here when the emphasis was announced last year. Most felt it was needed, but many thought the penalty (1 point, no warning) was a bit harsh. Now here we are a year later, with a years worth of info, feedback from coaches, and probably the refs too.

I'm less concerned about the penalty than the change in behavior, so guess we'll see. The proposal (from unnecessary roughness to illegal hold) could very well continue to change behaviors.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Str8DBLz
Regarding hands to the face, if I remember correctly it was split here when the emphasis was announced last year. Most felt it was needed, but many thought the penalty (1 point, no warning) was a bit harsh. Now here we are a year later, with a years worth of info, feedback from coaches, and probably the refs too.

I'm less concerned about the penalty than the change in behavior, so guess we'll see. The proposal (from unnecessary roughness to illegal hold) could very well continue to change behaviors.
I appreciated that the rule did appear to decrease, on the whole, hands to the face. But the flip side, for me, wasn't that the penalty was necessarily too harsh (1 point seems fair), it's how robbing the refs of discretion was quickly weaponized by coaches cheaply gaming their way out of close matches by going to video review. (Which wasn't the fault of the coaches, who are more or less obligated to use whatever tools they're given.) But the unintended consequences of this rule ruined a few matches that should've been classics this year, matches that might've seen the wrestlers looking for takedowns instead of their corners looking for hands to the face.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT