On April 3 the Big 12 Conference announced that the University of Wyoming wrestling team would be moving from the Mountain West Conference to the Big 12 Conference next year.
The move will put Wyoming’s wrestling on the center stage of the nation’s heavyweights and speed along the progression of Wyoming’s wrestling program.
“The association with the Big 12 Conference will help with recruiting, recognition of the team and will help the development of the team and in return make a stronger program,” Wrestling head coach Mark Branch said.
Wyoming, currently in the Mountain West Conference, will have some culture shock settling into the powerhouse Big 12 conference. The conference includes wrestling powerhouses such as Oklahoma State, which finished 12-3 this season winning the Big 12 Conference and finishing with a dual meet ranking of 6th in the nation. Other power houses include Iowa State which finished 11-2 on the season and finished with a ranking of 8th overall in the nation.
“Wyoming’s move to the Big 12 Conference was pursued because of the need for the conference to expand and grow in strength, the Big 12 needed more teams to move more into the national spotlight for college wrestling,” stated Branch.
Wyoming being picked to move to the Big 12 Conference was no mistake. The Pokes wrestling team excelled greatly this season finishing the season ranked 16th overall for dual meets in the NCAA. Dual meets is a sector of the sport that Wyoming is very proud of and excels at among other teams in the Mountain West Conference.
Fortunately for the Cowboys the NCAA stated that they would start to make a shift on how much a team’s dual meet strength affects their success during the season. The NCAA is trying to make teams with strong dual meet records benefit more from these strengths.
Some say the Wyoming wrestling team had a standout season with all of the success the team saw this year, but Branch still sees room for improvement. Although the team as a whole is very competitive in the nation when it comes to dual meets, that’s only one aspect of a team’s strength as a whole. Branch preaches that at the end of the season he is always striving to come away with as many individual All-Americans as he can. A goal that was not reached this season after the conclusion of the NCAA tournament.
“Individually we are always looking to produce All-Americans during the season,” Branch said.
Wyoming’s move to the Big 12 Conference will help with this individual aspect of the sport. Through better recruiting and recognition that this new conference promises, there is no question that one of the schools most prolific sports programs will continue to progress.
Drew Templeman competes in a match from a previous season. Cowboys wrestling annouced April 3 that it would be moving to the Big 12 Conference.
