High level tournaments like CKLV and Scuffle can be meat grinders that produce wear and tear. You can never predict when injuries will occur (practice, dual or tournament), but from a statistical perspective, adding tougher tournaments does increase your exposure to potential injuries.

Several years back Dresser removed Midlands from our schedule, and mentioned that this was done intentionally with the goal of getting to March as healthy as possible. Our NCAA success ticked up a level that year and we have pretty much sustained that level of success every year since.

As a fan, the December "lull' the past year years hasn't been thrilling, but its hard to argue with the results.

A counter example to this scheduling approach has been Arizona State. The last few years they have wrestled incredibly tough schedules, but outside of Valencia, they haven't had great results at NCAA's.

I agree with you, I am excited to see Scuffle on our schedule. If we come out relatively healthy, the experience gained will certainly be beneficial. Last year I remember wishing McFadden could have gotten a crack at a guy on Joseph's level during the regular season.

Will be interesting to see how the change in scheduling philosophy this year plays out for us.