It’s not that I prefer wrestling, I love football and basketball, but a winning team deserves recognition.

Last semester, I wrote an opinion piece titled “UW Wrestling: Best athletic team on campus”. I thought with that specific, blunt wording that I made my point pretty clear. Guess not.

So, with this article, I’ll draw you a map to the UniWyo Sports Complex; set your cell phone alarm for 7 p.m. because the wrestlers take on conference rival Air Force tonight in their final home dual of the season. 

It seems obvious to me, someone who is tired of poor Cowboy athletics, that students should go watch the wrestlers. 

They are ranked No. 17 according to InterMat polls and had five wrestlers ranked in the first release of the NCAA Coaches Panel Rankings last week.

For some reason, The Star-Tribune and other papers around the state seem to think that Cowboy basketball’s dismal play is still more interesting than the wrestling team, as they cover basketball much more widely than they do wrestling. I fully understand why basketball and football receive more coverage; they are the money sports. 

The Cowboy Joe Club shovels their money into basketball and football. It’s the same around the country; the difference is that other schools have programs whose performances warrant such support.

One of my friends, who hadn’t been to a Cowboy basketball game during the past two years, asked me how early he might need to get to the game against BYU last night. 

He was not interested in Wyoming, but he wanted to see Jimmer Fredette play. I did not know how to answer him because for every other game, you can show up in the third quarter and get a seat right in front.

The basketball team lost 69-62 tonight to BYU. It is a huge surprise that it was so close, but they still lost. 

When the wrestlers win it’s not a surprise. Come on, I’m a journalism major and I can figure this one out.

Email the author: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it