Scott Goodale on NCAA Wrestling seeds: 'I just think there should be a little bit of common sense'

Carter Starocci was the headliner when it came to NCAA Wrestling seeds and Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale wants more common sense.

Starocci, a three-time NCAA champion for Penn State, was seeded ninth simply by medically defaulting out of the Big Ten tournament, giving him his only two losses of the year. The 174 pounder’s winning streak was reaching close to 70 at this point.

But now, he’s got an interesting draw at NCAAs this week and Goodale commented on the process for seeding in general.

“I never really complained about the seeds,” Goodale said Monday on a virtual press conference. “I felt 174 was a little bit skewed, based on Starocci, and I think at the end of the day, the committee and whether it’s me on a committee one day or whether it’s the committee now, I just think there should be a little bit of common sense. The guy hasn’t lost in four years. So he was injured and he stayed out for a reason to get ready for this tournament because we put so much into this tournament. So that was my only little bit of a gripe.” 

Starocci said he was fully healthy going into this week. Whether he is remains to be seen.

But again, he and head coach Cael Sanderson made the decision and they saw the consequences when it came to seeding.

There are numbers, a matrix and more, but there should simply be common sense according to Goodale.

“Again, I think they really hurt guys, that medical forfeited out, and that’s because the coaches asked for that,” Goodale said. “Through all of our meetings and our conventions and things like that, they did not want medical forfeits. So I think anybody that did a little bit of that kind of got hurt by it. Certainly not our case. But that’s kind of where that comes from. And again, at the end of the day, I just think the committee needs to say okay, what does this 33-Man bracket look like? Is it good? Or should we kind of tweak this a little bit. 

“I think everybody on this call feels Carter Starocci is probably a top four seed. But he medical’d out. So maybe he becomes the four? I don’t know. I just think there needs to be a little bit of common sense and they say well, last year and years prior don’t matter. I think they should a little bit. He deserves it. He’s a three time national champ and again hasn’t lost in three years.”