Askren nominated for ESPN

[RYou]

As long as you are voting, don't stop with BAskren......Randy Couture has been nominated for Best Fighter.....got my vote

[goferphan]

I am going to go with myself as a write in candidate...I have had a pretty good year if I do say so myself.

[Dart Shark]

And for those of you that might be reading this on facebook.

"Please vote for me so I can win an espy" is now a group .... look for it.

[rstrong]

Well, this is a wrestling message board, so it's reasonable to assert that most of the people who are on here want to do what's best for wrestling. It's also reasonable to assert that wrestling fans would also look at a guy who went undefeated for two seasons as the best college athlete over a couple of basketball players and a football player.

And really, the purpose of a vote is to do whatever the heck you want with it. According to the other message board, there is a guy who voted for Arizona pitcher Taryne Mowatt because she is "smokin' hot." Does THAT make her a better athlete than Monica Abbott, the most dominant pitcher in recent history, or Candace Parker, an all-around amazing basketball player as well as one of the few women who can dunk? Of course not. But he gets to click on the nominee that he wants to, and he doesn't need to give a reason. So vote for who you want, rstrong, but don't deride the people who use their vote to better their favorite sport.

Whoa -- easy there. I voted for Askren - because I thought he deserved the award, not because I wanted to 'use' the vote to make some kind of statement. You, bluestater, can vote how you like. But don't deride people who want the awards to go to those who most deserve it - not necessarily those who participate in our favorite sport.

[The Big Stiffy]

And for those of you that might be reading this on facebook.

"Please vote for me so I can win an espy" is now a group .... look for it.

I'm a fellow member of the group!

[bluestater]

Not to be annoying but... did you vote?

[Champ Kind]

Kevin Durant won

[bluestater]

Kevin Durant won

Boooo. I am interested to watch the red carpet on Sunday; the press had to love Ben.

[Dart Shark]

I'll throw this one out there for you guys. I recently cross-posted one of the InterMat Premium Service blogs over to armchairgm.com, a popular all-sports blog/wiki for some push for Ben.

Mark's already posted it on AWFA, so since it's out there, I'll post it here.

This was written prior to the ESPY show yesterday.

ESPY Awards: Why Ben Askren should win best Male College Athlete
by user InterMat

By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

I?m guessing the folks here at ArmChairGM aren?t familiar with 174-pound wrestler Ben Askren.

I?m also fairly confident the same folks know the names Kevin Durant, Greg Oden and Troy Smith.

Two of the four will be making big money on the professional stage next year, while Smith was a fifth-round draft pick. He?ll still garner a sizeable income.

The last of the four will be working on a graduate degree and have the title of ?volunteer? attached to his job title. There will be no big signing bonuses for one of the four ? and that one is Askren.

Here?s a few reasons why Askren, a two-time NCAA champion and four-time finalist for the University of Missouri ?should? win. However, we?re realists in the wrestling world. We know the mainstream masses won?t give the afro-laden Askren a second-thought.

Askren was recently named the Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year. That?s right; he won the award from the conference in which Durant competed. So if there was a ?rational? thought in this voting process, Askren would win by process of elimination, right?

So the Associated Press? National Player of the Year was behind a wrestler in the Big 12.

If I were Askren and the conference tells me I?m the best male athlete ? over the National Player of the Year -- I?d be waiting for sponsorships and shoe contracts to come rolling in. Maybe a Gatorade plug or something with Snickers. But wrestlers don?t get that type of love from the big companies. Sure, Askren?s endorses Brute/adidas wrestling, but that doesn?t bring in the seven-figure endorsement deals 19-year-old seven-footers are entitled to these days.

This brings us to Troy Smith, who shouldn?t be considered either. Why? He wasn?t even the Big Ten athlete of the Year, but to his defense, did walk away with probably the most prestigious trophy in all of college sports.

The Heisman Trophy winning quarterback wasn?t named the Big Ten/Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year. That honor went to a wrestler.

Minnesota heavyweight Cole Konrad, who, like Askren, is a Wisconsin native and went undefeated his last two years, won the Big Ten?s award for Male Athlete of the Year. Score one for the little guy (and by little guy, I mean wrestling, not Konrad, he?s a very big guy).

Askren gets the nod with an assist from King Cole.

Actually, now that I think about it, give Konrad another assist since Oden also plays in the Big Ten and wasn?t even his school?s own nominee for Best Male Athlete.

So there?s only one clear-cut winner at the conference level in ESPN?s voting pool, which concluded just days ago.

Reasons why Ben Askren should win the ESPY for Best Male Athlete.

• He finished his career with 87 straight wins, made the finals of the NCAA Division I Championships four times and came away with two championships. His career record was 153-8.He went 42-0 in 2007.
• Askren is the first and only wrestler at the University of Missouri to win an NCAA title. The Tigers also were ranked #1 for the first time in school history this season during a three-week stretch in January.
• Askren led the nation in pins in 2007 and led Division I in 2006. He calls his signature cradle ?the world?s greatest unknown move.?
• Askren won the Dan Hodge Trophy ? a.k.a. wrestling?s Heisman ? twice.
• During the season, Askren pinned the second-ranked wrestler in the nation in under a minute. Of his 29 wins by pin, 23 of them were in the first period.
• Askren made it cool again for white folks to have an afro.
• Askren has 91 career pins, third all-time in collegiate wrestling.
• Askren is one of only 12 wrestles in the modern era (post-1950) to make the NCAA Finals every single year of his career.
• Askren would only be the second wrestler ever to win the category. Current Iowa State head coach Cael Sanderson, you know, the undefeated guy and gold medalist, won in 2002.
• Askren is the second wrestler to win the Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year award since the conference expanded from the Big 8. Sanderson was the other.
• Askren was a four-time selection to the NWCA and Big 12 All-Academic Teams.
• Wrestling?s a sport where you have to win something directly to become an All-American. There are no ?named? All-Americans, you place top eight, and you?re an All-American. Askren did it four times.
• Reasons to vote for either Askren or Smith: They graduated.
• Askren can bench press more than 185 pounds.
• There are 62 facebook groups listed when you search for ESPY. Askren has four different groups pushing him for the award, and one was started by Askren himself.
• Askren recently placed sixth at the St. Louis Open ? in disc golf. In 2006, he placed 46 th in the PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships.
• For Smith, Durant and Oden, it?s really hard to match the career of Askren on just stats alone. Durant and Oden might have had a shot at the argument, had they competed all four years.

This blog post is part of InterMat's Premium Service at www.intermatwrestle.com