Who Shall Wear the Crown?

There has been a lot of chatter about the 133 bracket this year and whether it may be the greatest bracket of all time.

With eight returning All-Americans and the addition of an unbelievably talented and credentialed crop of freshmen it certainly has the potential to take the title of greatest of all time. But it is way too early for that coronation. And to become the greatest it must displace the greatest. So, which is the greatest as of now?

Websters defines greatest as….come on, I wouldn’t do that to you.

But we do need to deal with the definition of greatest. There are a lot of ways we can do this.

Do we acknowledge that the future is not yet written and only consider cumulative achievements up to the point of their careers where they enter this one big, beautiful bracket?

Or do we recognize that time is just a construct and consider everything that happened both before and after they came together to form their hallowed gathering?

Are tournament points scored the right metric? After all it is all about the team, right?

Or is it All-Americans earned? Those individual honors are pretty sweet.

What about champions? Or finalists? I mean, not all All-Americans are created equal.

Should we fold freestyle results into the mix? Was Jordan Burroughs any harder to beat as a freshman because he saw a lot of golds all around the world post-graduation?

Points ARE The Point

What are we even doing this for if not to win team titles? And how do we win team titles? By racking up the points. Advance me, bonus you, and don’t forget the grand daddy of them all – the placement points.

If we believe that the only thing that matters are achievements up to, but not yet including, the bracket in question then we will want to focus on cumulative tournament points per wrestler up to that point in their career. The top 5 brackets for cumulative points were:

But wait, you might say, all those brackets are post-Covid and contain wrestlers who had five tournaments. That’s cheating.

And yet. It happened. Carter Starocci absolutely made the bracket harder when he stuck around for his fifth go round. Just like Lucas Byrd is making this year’s 133 bracket harder.

But five.

Fine. We can look at it both ways.

If we exclude any bracket that had a wrestler competing in his fifth tournament the list looks like this:

Would you like a little more detail about that 2024 197 bracket? Well, since you asked nicely.

The Big Bad

Seeing a future four timer at the top of that list suggests another avenue of inquiry. Is a bracket tough simply by having one of the most dominant wrestlers of all time? A Big Bad, if you will. It certainly is for the other 32 wrestlers, but is it overall tough?

Before answering that let’s take a detour to the bracket we eliminated due to the presence of fifth year wrestlers.

Now, this bracket has three Big Bads, and one of them is still only in fourth place by points entering the bracket. Surely a guy like that has no chance, right?

Hammers, Hammers Everywhere

Speaking of Big Bads there have only been two brackets that opened the tournament with three former champions – 2023 165 and 2024 174. And like Stanford wrestling, neither would be possible without Shane Griffith.

The 2023 165 bracket contained no fifth-year wrestlers while the 2024 174 bracket contained two, Griffith and Mekhi Lewis. Sadly, for our hero, Griffith did not make the final either time – finishing fifth and third respectively. If that doesn’t qualify as tough, I do not know what does.

It is in the career statistics category that the bracket with the most Big Bads really gets interesting. While there have been four brackets with eight eventual championships in them, one of them stands above the others because those eight championships were won by six different wrestlers.

We finally get to the 2008 149 bracket that everyone likes to point to when discussing the greatest/toughest of all time. Interestingly, only one of those championships was in the rear-view mirror at the time the bracket was contested, one was earned that year (obviously), and the other six were yet to come.

But the 2008 149 bracket does not even hold the record for most eventual championships. That title belongs to the 1994 158 bracket which contained a two-timer, a three-timer, and a four-timer. That is some good work, gentlemen.

You can put a lot of nails in a lot of coffins with that many hammers.

Tell Me More About This Vaunted 2008 149 Bracket

This is the bracket of legends. When we speak of it, we must speak well. And in somber, hushed tones. From boardrooms to back alleys they whisper it softly – there goes greatness. But…

But going into that tournament there was not a lot to recommend this bracket. It did not even have the highest returning points that year, or the most returning AA’s. That would be the 2008 197 bracket. What’s more, the 2008 149 bracket only comes in at number 70 on the all-time cumulative points list. Ho and hum.

Where this bracket really begins to shine is when we look at the totality of all their 28 careers. It was what was to come that really sets this bracket apart.

On top of the 28 career AAs earned by 11 different wrestlers, with 8 of them being championships, there was the presence of The One We Were Promised, the one many consider to be the American GOAT of freestyle.

But if we go that route, wouldn’t the 2013 165 bracket with Kyle Dake and David Taylor, two other GOAT eligible wrestlers, be in the running? While it comes up well short on total career points (487.5 vs 595) and just short on titles (6 vs 8) and total AAs (27 vs 28), it has double the GOAT. You usually pay extra for that. And that has to count for something?

But These Are NCAA Brackets. Right?

Yes. Yes, they are. So, let’s get back to basics. We have already talked about cumulative points leaders, but which group of wrestlers scored the most career points? If I am asking that question this late in the post, it must be a new arrival to the party. Sorry, 2008 149.

If we are giving out lifetime achievement awards (if that lifetime lasts until they are done wrestling NCAA tournaments) then the 2022 174 takes the cake.

With Carter Starocci, the only five-timer champion ever, leading the way and with plenty of other wrestlers who got five bites at the apple there were a whole lotta points scored by this group.

Don’t worry. I have already anticipated your next objection. Is it fair to pad the stats with fifth year guys, especially when using counting stats? If we exclude any bracket that contained a wrestler who wrestled in five tournaments, then we must go back a couple of years to find The One.

Welcome to the conversation Alex Dieringer, Dylan Ness, Derek St. John, James Green, etal.

The 2014 157 bracket is still the only bracket from the pre-five times era to outscore the 2008 149 bracket on a career total basis.

With 7 eventual finalists and 35 total AAs earned over a bunch of illustrious careers, this is a pretty salty lineup.

Full Circle

Back to the original question. What was the greatest bracket of all time?

Got me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

If you are from the “what have you done for me lately” crowd you will want to talk about the more recent brackets like the 2025 184 bracket. But if you think wrestlers should pick on someone their own age then it might be the 2024 197 bracket.

If you have a hard time unseeing what you know you saw afterwards (with your own lying eyes) then the 2014 157 bracket looks pretty tasty, as does the 2022 174 bracket.

If your focus is drawn to the top end of the bracket, how can you go wrong with 2024 174 or 2023 165?

If all you see is gold you probably favor the 2013 165 bracket (with apologies to JB).

Finally, if you are a fan of Sunday brunch with a lot of everything, but not necessarily the best of everything, the 2008 149 bracket may just be the cure for what ails ya.

The choice is yours, take your pick.

And feel free to yell at me in the comments below.

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