And so another domino falls.

     First of all, before I dive into this issue as you all know by now I am extremely passionate about, I'm. sorry. I and the wresting community have failed you. I am sorry to each and every one of the wrestlers on the Fresno State Roster. You will now inevitably have to make unnecessary life-changing decisions because of our failures. I am sorry that we took the entertainment and raw athletic ability that you provided us with for granted. I'm sorry that we as a community were unable to come up with the necessary monetary funds to keep your dream alive. I'm sorry that I sat in total negligence as hegemonic media companies profited off what you worked so hard to achieve and still will continue to achieve. We as a community owe an apology to Brandon Betancourt, Beau Colombini, Hunter Cruz, Chris Deloza, Haiden Drury, Anthony Federico, Aaron Gandara, Greg Gaxiola, Randy Gonzalez, Zack Gonzalez, Jackson Hemauer, Gary Joint, Adam Kemp, DJ Lloren, Anthony Moulton, Mateo Morales, AJ Nevills, Matt Olguin, Kyle Parco, Owen Pentz, Isaiah Perez, Isaiah Perez,(two people with the exact name wow) Josh Ramirez, Christian Rodriguez, Lawrence Saenz, Danny Salas, Jeremy Trinh, Nick Villarreal, and Jacob Wright. 

    I took the time to type each individual wrestler on the Fresno State roster out because it is a stark reminder as to just how many lives our negligence impacts. While we mourn with them and say how sorry we are over twitter for the next 24 hours, the truth is we don't really care. (I would use more colorful language, but my dad reads these sometimes) We have another NLWC Rofkin Card in a few weeks, Iowa will be doing their thing on Track, Flo will be doing their way overdue 8 man event, and when we watch those events, these wonderful gentlemen's plight will be the furthest thing from our mind. Do you know how I know? In high school debate, we say empirics prove, you look to precedent... be honest, how many of you actually remember that Stanford was cut or that Old Dominion is now gone. Even if you have remembered, what have we done, we continued to allow Flo and big hegemonic companies to take our attention, and take our money without any regard to the student-athletes. The corrupt NCAA has done more over this 7-month quarantine period(eligibility relief) than we have as a community, and it shows.

I made a prediction on the Dan Ward Show a few months ago that I would be back following the conclusion of the 2021 season that we would be talking about another D1 program getting cut. Boy, do I wish I was right. We didn't even make it 90 days before it happened again. There will be the inevitable group of folks that will turn away from this article and be more convinced than ever that the Athletic Directors across this country hate wrestling. They will point to Fresno State's questionable athletic department. They will point to Fresno State's high attendance. It literally hasn't even been 24 hours since my last article explaining how most of the revenue that is generated comes from the media coverage. Every one of Fresno's duals last year was showcased on Flo except 2, and that was only because their dual opponents had contracts with other networks. Literally, that means that if I didn't have a Flo subscription last year, and it was my first year watching wrestling, and I live outside of a 5 mile radius of the campus, this might be the first time anyone's ever heard of the program. That fundamentally is the issue at hand, there is simply not enough exposure to keep AD's interest. You could put a 2x multiple on Fresno State's already remarkable attendance and I would bet every dollar that I have that the same decision would have been made.

My ideas are radical. My ideas are different and may create surefire uncertainty in the short term, but it is becoming increasingly clear over the past few months that the slow death of this sport will be painful and unbearable for those who care the most about it. 

1. Restructure the priorities of growing the sport ALONG with growing the company
2. Find PR opportunities to share wrestling stories with the Mainstream Media
3. Form a Coalition of wrestlers demanding better from major wrestling media outlets as well as the National Governing body.
4. Demand that Flo allows creators to use their content for creator purposes only within reason under Fair Use Laws. 
5. Demand that Flo leaves a reasonable amount of content to non-paying customers for the purposes of growing the sport(eg. Rankings, The majority of articles, some live streaming events
6. Allow Competitors to openly cover Flo’s Events
7. Before the above 6 conditions are met change is made, avoid disclosing news or inside information to FLO 
8. Do not agree to wrestle any matches under the FLO promotion, unless payment amount and details are released to the public
9. Require a Monthly Report about the status and rough financials of Flosports including official subscriber numbers.

     I still stand by each and every single one of these points 2 months later. I hope that with each increasing domino that continues to fall, more people will be willing to consider ideas that certainly are scary for the short-term success of the sport, but are much needed to keep the prestige of wrestling alive for many years to come. 

    As I said yesterday, this will require maverick(s). People that are unorthodox and fearless. People that are willing to sacrifice the certainty of their future for the betterment of the sport. and while we wait for those mavericks to arrive, we are all negligent bystanders to the slow death of the sport that we cherish.

    I apologize if I missed any of the Fresno State wrestlers, I'm writing this at lightning speed, my heart breaks for you, and all that I can say personally as a fan is that I wish I wouldn't have waited until this year to start speaking out about this. I kept it to myself for over 2+ years, and that will always be my fault.