The abrupt end to the NCAA Wrestling season robbed wrestling fans of the most important tournament of the year, and more importantly robbed the wrestlers themselves of the opportunity to earn All-American honors or a spot atop the championship podium. Athletes, coaches, and fans all held some hope that the NCAA Council would take some extraordinary action to do right by those athletes — and athletes in other sports similarly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — but those hopes were dashed Monday evening when the Council declined to extend eligibility for athletes in winter sports.

Ahead of the Council’s decision, Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan said that simply doing nothing is “not a valid option.”

“To me, just kind of throwing it under the carpet and saying, 'We're sorry, there was a pandemic…' that's an option, but to me not a valid option,” Ryan said on The Eleven Dubcast podcast. “That's not an option that as a leader of any organization that I would ever just live with. I don't think that's a valid option.”

Ryan said granting wrestlers another year of eligibility was extremely complicated, from dealing with financial aid implications to academic situations where an athlete will graduate this semester.

One option he proposed was to recognize the teams and athletes for what they accomplished in the season that did happen.

“There's a possibility that you simply do like college football did before there was a playoff: whatever you were ranked in the last ranking, that’s where you finish,” he explained. “If you were ranked 1, you finish the season No. 1; if you were ranked 2, you're No. 2; if you were ranked 7, you're No. 7.” 

He shared a proposal via Instagram after the Council decision that expounded on the concept, suggesting that wrestlers seeded 1-4 would be named First Team All-American, seeds 5-8 would be Second Team, and seeds 9-12 would be named Third Team.

As for the team race, he said the solution is equally straightforward.

“You take the team points based on the seeds to the national tournament, and you award team trophies based on the placement points you would get from where your guys were ranked,” he explained. “I don't believe we should just end and move on.”

What about the idea that everyone should get together once shelter-in-place orders expire sometime in early summer? Wouldn’t that be a better option?

“Another option is to wrestle it, [but] I don't think that's a valid option,” Ryan said. “There are some supporters in the sport who are talking about maybe getting the top four guys together at some point and wrestling it, but that's not going to be NCAA-sanctioned. So, it's just really complicated.”

What the cancellation of the season brought into focus is something Ryan has championed for a long time: putting more of a focus on the regular season and the importance of the dual meet.

“We all know in the sport of wrestling, the end of the year is the lion's share of how good your season was,” he said.

This season everyone is left wondering: Just how good was it, after all?

Andy Vance is a Columbus-based journalist who covers the Ohio State University wrestling program for Eleven Warriors, the largest independent sports site on the internet for Ohio State news, analysis, and community. He is co-host of the site’s Eleven Dubcast podcast. Follow him on Twitter @AndyVance.