Jul. 20—ARLINGTON, Texas — The Big 12 Conference made headlines in April announcing the return of a former league member as an affiliate in wrestling.
Missouri, which had been wrestling in the Mid-American Conference since the Southeastern Conference doesn’t not have any other wrestling programs, rejoined the Big 12 as a wrestling affiliate — following a list of non-Power 5 programs that the league has welcomed in as a affiliates since the departure of Missouri and Nebraska.
In a News Press exclusive from Big 12 Football Media Days, Big 12 Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby mentioned that the initial word of such a move wasn’t well received around the league.
However, smarter heads prevailed.
“Among some of the athletic directors, there was just a recoil a little bit of having a team come in that was previously in the league, but in the end, I think the coaches got over it and the ADs got over it,” said Bowlsby, who wrestled in college at Moorhead State (now called Minnesota State University). “So we’re glad to have them.”
The league has been trailing the Big Ten in wrestling at the national level, and for the past decade, Oklahoma State has been the only threat on the national stage — and the league has been lagging behind in automatic qualifiers.
The hope is that with the continued bolstering of the league through its affiliates, the Big 12 can become more competitive against the power conference in wrestling.
“The reason we add affiliate members to begin with is so that we have a better conference qualifying tournament, so that they were better prepared for the NCAA tournament, and so that we got more qualifiers and have better regular season competition,” Bowlsby said. “So, it accomplishes all of those things.”
Helping draw talent into the Big 12 through the success of its current wrestlers could also improve the league’s chances of tracking down the Big Ten.
One of those wrestlers will be A.J. Ferrari, who won a national championship as a true freshman for the Cowboys.
On his journey to claiming a national crown, Ferrari became a media and social media darling with his celebrations and post-match interviews on ESPN. And while his character certainly has a split base among wrestling fans, his character can’t be denied in front of a camera.
“We like people that capture the whimsy of the fans, and he certainly did that,” Bowlsby said of Ferrari.