The Carter Starocci loophole in NCAA wrestling may finally be showing its cracks. For some quick context, the 2020-2021 year in NCAA wrestling was declared a ‘free year,’ allowing wrestlers to compete in this year without it affecting their four-year eligibility clock, so Penn State’s Carter Starocci was able to compete for the NCAA championship titles five times, rather than four which was the norm. However, now, tables seem to be turning for Little Rock’s Tyler Brennan, who competes at 174 pounds, with discoveries being made about him competing in his fifth NCAA year despite having not made use of the COVID ‘free year.’ The question now is…how?

Well, for now, it just looks like a major, major lack of oversight. Tyler Brennan, who has been competing in the NCAA since 2020, missed out on the 2021 year but continued to rack up five years with his participation in this year’s tournament. Seemingly, he took advantage of the five-year loophole by just substituting his free year with the year of his choosing. However, things have now been brought into public light, and in a statement released by Pat Mineo of the Wrestling Room, it looks like Brennan may be pulled from the bracket.

Mineo’s statement reads, “Little Rock 174 Tyler Brennan is allegedly at risk of being pulled from the bracket after it was uncovered that he is somehow competing in his 5th NCAA tournament- despite not competing during the “free Covid year” in 2021… This raises many questions? HOW?” Fans definitely have their theories, especially with this event taking place not too long after Carter Starocci won his fifth NCAA title, taking full advantage of the ‘free year.’

Fan reactions to Tyler Brennan possibly being pulled from the Little Rock team in light of Carter Starocci’s title

Certain fans were simply shocked at the level of oversight and how late it occurred in Brennan’s career, with one particular fan noting, “So Brennan was able to wrestle the entire year and it took them to the day that brackets were coming out for them to realize that he had no eligibility. Dafuq?” Which is a fair point, considering Brennan started wrestling in 2020, which means that surely the NCAA should have been keeping a keener eye on him five years later!

Other fans weren’t hesitant to bring up the elephant in the room, i.e., Carter Starocci, with one fan saying, “How is this any different the starocci ? This kid can’t compete in a fifth tournament but he can go for a 5th title?” Lots of fans hold a grudge against Starocci, who seemed to have been given an unfair advantage with that reigning title and the possibility to let it reign over a fifth year, with another fan adding along the same lines, “That’s bullshit. Just give him the 5th year. Carter got one when he didn’t even deserve it. He was redshirted that year.”

Still, other fans felt like the entire COVID ‘free year’ scheme was a mistake, with one fan writing, “The WHOLE Covid reaction thing was total disaster. They screwed wrestlers like Mark Hall who got cheated out of a year, so to fix it they gave everyone younger 5 years… plus an Olympic year… plus a redshirt year… plus medical redshirt years.” Mark Hall, who wrestled for Penn State, had his final NCAA year cut short because of the whole COVID crisis, and perhaps the NCAA tried to make up for this with the whole free year thing, but clearly they hadn’t thought that through.

Finally, one fan pointed out what could have caused this entire thing, which, in all honesty, is not the best look to have come into public view: “Flo snitched.” This fan points out the fact that Flo is the event platform keeping all the records, and had they not been doing so, perhaps Brennan would have gotten away with his sneaky fifth year and held his own against Carter Starocci!