You schedule your in conference duals. For the ACC that is 5 dual matches required. Beyond that, a team is free to schedule whatever they want out side of that for the most part. NC State scheduled more OOC duals this year and only one tourney – NC State Open. VT scheduled less duals and more (three) tournaments. VT wrestled in Hokie Open (similar to NC State’s Open); Cliff Keen; and Southern Scuffle. A wrestler can get anywhere from 2 to 5+ matches in a tournament.

It is more about getting the wrestlers quality matches than racking up dual wins. In the end our wrestlers will have approximately the same number of matches as NC State (just not duals). Cliff Keen and Southern Scuffle are hard and challenging tournaments — Robie probably feels these tournaments better prepare the Grapplers for the end of season tournament style ACC and NCAA Championships. And based on history, it has worked.

I will add that a dual match may only give a strong team a couple of quality match ups at certain weight classes. It did the team no good beating Duke 40-3 — there were only a couple of worthwhile matches. In a tournament setting, EVERY wrestler will be tested a couple of times with high ranked matchups. Tournaments are way better for improving the wrestlers IMHO.