B1G Wrestling Is Back! Kinda.

Well hello there! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Just about a lifetime 10 months ago we were as Gable Steveson defeated Mason Parris to end the B1G Championships and hoping that we could get the NCAA Championships held at the US Bank Stadium, even if it wasn’t packed to the rafters with Iowa fans who had drove up I-35 for their team’s victory lap. And then...nothing.

So here we are. 1 weekend is in the books of the 2020-21 wrestling season. Iowa is still the favorite to win the team title, Gable Steveson is still your God, and it’s...different. We’ve got no non-conference, the season is very compact, and there’s still no fans. It’s wrestling, but it’s not. That being said, I need to break out of the cycle I’m in so let’s give this a shot, shall we?

What happened last weekend

#8 Nebraska 22 #13 Minnesota 14

Gable Steveson is good, Nebraska is deeper than the Gophers, and true freshman Andrew Sparks beating Peyton Robb in his NCAA debut was awesome.

#2 Michigan 26 #20 Rutgers 10

#2 Michigan 38 Maryland 3

Is Michigan the 2nd-best team behind Iowa? Possibly. The collection of Stevan Micic, Myles Amin, and Mason Parris could be the best group that won’t win a single title this year assembled on one team.

Illinois 39 Indiana 3

This is a dual meet that happened, and that’s a score you’d expect from Illinois back when they were a team that’d put a couple guys on the podium. Unfortunately for them they will not face Indiana ever week.

What’s happening this weekend

Northwestern at #19 Purdue - Friday 6PM BTN

#1 Iowa at #8 Nebraska - Friday 8PM BTN

Maryland-Michigan State-#13 Minnesota triangular - Saturday

#3 Penn State at #20 Rutgers - Saturday 1:30PM BTN

Illinois-#10 Ohio State-wisconsin triangular - Sunday

Indiana at #2 Michigan - Sunday

Oooooooie. We’ve got 3 matches on TV this weekend, and then some advertisements for subscribing to FLO or BTN+. Iowa-Nebraska should be fun, Penn State-Rutgers has a couple decent matches at 133 and 141, and Northwestern-Purdue is a college wrestling match on TV. The triangulars will make things interesting, and I wish that there could be at least one of them on BTN. Give us Michigan-PSU-wisconsin or Iowa-OSU-Purdue, you cowards!

Matchups of the weekend:

141 #2 Nick Lee (Penn State) vs. #4 Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers)

174 #1 Michael Kemerer (Iowa) vs. #4 Mikey Labriola (Nebraska)

Other things to watch:

PSU HWT and former Gopher commit Poke commit Buckeye Simley Spartan (just for you, MNW) Greg Kerkvliet should make his college debut. Could he be a foil to Steveson at some point? Probably not, but it’ll be good to finally see him on the mat.

So there we go. Let’s see how much of the season we can get in, and hopefully it’s as entertaining as possible. Godspeed, Indiana and Maryland fans.