2010 was #1 so that's 3 of the last 8. Look you guys can complain about recruiting all you want but Iowa has brought in a lot of talent this decade yet have finished behind a team other then PSU every year. Missouri is currently ranked slightly ahead of Iowa in Intermat's tournament rankings and 4 ahead in dual rankings, are you really trying to tell my they are out recruiting Iowa?
You said 7 not 8 so setting you straight. It is no secret that Iowa was missing the boat with their recruiting. It has gotten better recently and has been a gradual improvement since M* has become involved. How much actual talent they brought in vs what some ranking site said is where the gap is. Frankly a lot of guys Iowa has brought in before the light turned on were not especially talented despite criteria that would seemed like they would be. Like I said, the team recruiting ranking is very flawed. They give too much input to things that mean nothing. Sure a team signed a bunch of guys or recruited over hole or two but the only things matters is having guys who score big points an the NCAAs. If you want to rank a class properly you should only factor that. Team A might bring in two top 10 overall guys who score 20+ points each at the tourny and team B brought in 8 guys ranked lower who score a total of 20 points. Which class was better?
As for Mizzouri, they do well at identifying talent not ranked so high, they have been better than Iowa at finding athletic wrestlers they can use in their system. Intermat's tournament rankings aside I'll take our trophy case over theirs even in the time since Iowa last won a title.
I think the light bulb has come on for Iowa but now they are behind a bit.
2012- Clark, Gilman etc. Good class, good production.
2013- Only Sorensen has contributed and he was not ranked overly high.
2014- Stoll and Gross were great pick ups, injuries hurt him and Gross is #1 on another team . Bowman has chipped in some as a walk on type.
2015- Kem has been great as per his ranking. Wilke good for a #100. Turk injured last year and so so now. Lots of quality room depth and small varsity contributions from walk on type guys like Glynn, Gunther, Glosser, Moody, Shaw etc. Add in transfer Lugo.
2016- Bull is a score, Young is a lot better than many of the higher ranked misses we have had but unfortunately a tweener now. Happel not looking like good value so far, the same issue of not being a good enough athlete might be the case. Hopefully he does not end up in that ares of guy who were not that talented despite criteria that seemed to indicate they were.
2017- Lee a homerun, Warner looks like a score, Murin looks like he can challenge for AA right away. Throw ins Corbin, Costello and Wilson have all had nice RS results. Easily their best class in a long time.
2018- I think both Brands and Cass will be multiple mid to high AA.
Iowa got best production from top end guys with the exception of Sorensen. PSU has signed more top end sure thing talent in the 2017 and 2018 classes than Iowa did from 2012 till now. Going forward Iowa needs to make sure they are choosing very well who they bring in no room for misses. PSU can afford to miss on someone because they have so many top end people there are others to fill the void, not just in lineup spots but especially in scoring. If Iowa misses they are usually left trying to use a lower ranked guy or walk on type to fill the gap and suffer a ton in anticipated point production being lost.