DENVER, Colorado - I am on the road again.

My alarm was buzzing at 5:30 a.m. today, and I finished packing before meeting colleagues Gary Abbott and Jason Bryant at USA Wrestling World Headquarters.

We made the 1 hour, 15 minute drive from Colorado Springs to Denver International Airport, went through security and are now waiting at our gate to fly to Atlanta.

We only have 50 minutes between flights, so any kind of delay could be crippling. We will have to hustle to make our Delta flight from Atlanta to Moscow. It looks like about a 10-hour flight.

You may see three frazzled looking passengers sprinting through the Atlanta airport in a couple of hours.

We will meet up with officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett in Atlanta and fly with them to Russia.

Our iPods are fully charged, and hopefully we will see a few decent movies on the flight.

I already bonked my head on the tailgate of Jason's truck when we were unloading bags, but I think I'm going to be OK.

I had my "last supper" last night before heading on the trip. I took my daughter, Hayley, to dinner for her 18th birthday. We went to Phantom Canyon in the Springs, and the pot roast was outstanding.

I've heard the food in Russia is not the best, so I've packed a few crackers, granola bars and items like that.

It's going to be a long day, but I'm excited to be headed to the World Championships again.

We will arrive a couple of days early to acclimate and check out the press operations for the event. The seven-day tournament opens with the Greco-Roman competition on Monday at the Sports Complex Olimpiskiy in Moscow.  

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - This is one of my favorite times of the year.

I love fall. I love the cooler temperatures and I love pro and college football. Can't wait to see how my two favorite teams, the Washington Redskins and Iowa Hawkeyes, do this season.

But my favorite part of this season is having the opportunity to travel to the World Championships and the Olympic Games for wrestling.

This year, I'm traveling to my fifth World Championships as the communications manager for USA Wrestling.

The Worlds are in Moscow, Russia, this year. Russia is the mecca of wrestling. They have the best freestyle team on the planet, and I'm looking to forward to seeing how the young, hungry and talented U.S. team stacks up against them and the rest of the World.

The U.S. is sending strong teams in all three styles, and look for the Americans to step up with a strong showing as we move closer to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

I am scheduled to leave Thursday morning out of Denver, along with communications director Gary Abbott and broadcasting/video man Jason Bryant. We fly to Atlanta and then will fly over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Moscow.

We are busy scrambling to make sure we don't forget anything for the trip. I will pack two suitcases and a computer bag for the trip.

The weather forecast looks like cool and rainy in Russia with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.

We will arrive in Russia a couple of days before the event to acclimate and check out the venue.

We plan on providing the best coverage we ever have for this event. We are going to do an audio webcast, Twitter updates, stories on the event, video interviews, features, blogs, brackets, etc.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com for updates from Russia. The seven-day tournament is scheduled for Sept. 6-12.

Let's hope the Internet is up and running in the arena when we get there.

Aren't college athletics supposed to be all about the student-athletes?

Recent developments in the college sports world really make you wonder.

Lane Kiffin jumps from the football program at Tennessee to USC and immediately is off and running in Los Angeles. Coaches can just jump from school to school with relatively no problem.

But when an athlete wants to change schools, it is a whole different story.

Brent Metcalf, Jay Borschel, Joey Slaton and Dan LeClere each lost a year of eligibility when they transferred from Virginia Tech to Iowa. None of them did anything wrong, they just wanted to switch schools when Coach Tom Brands left Virginia Tech for Iowa.

I know the rules are in place so a coach can't just switch schools and take all his athletes with them.

But it seems grossly unfair that a coach can switch schools and resume coaching right away at his new stop while it is much more difficult for the athletes to transfer to a different school.

It also is frustrating to see the NCAA take away a year of eligibility from a great kid like Jake Deitchler. All the kid did was make an Olympic Team as a teenager and do a great job representing his country. Deitchler accepted prize money before changing his mind and deciding to wrestle collegiately at Minnesota. He gave the money back and is enrolled in school, but the NCAA still decided to take a year of his college eligibility away.

It makes no sense for them to do this. Deitchler has returned the money and is a college freshman. It's sad to see a great kid penalized for something like that.

The National Duals, once again, provided plenty of drama this year.

As expected, No. 1 Iowa and No. 2 Iowa State squared off in the finals.

A newspaper reporter asked me before the dual who I thought would win and I quickly responded, "Whoever wins the match at 125."

The 125 bout between Iowa's Matt McDonough and Iowa State's Andrew Long may have been the best match I have seen all year. It featured two stud freshmen who opened it up and wrestled an entertaining, high-scoring match.

Long cradled McDonough to his back for three points early on, but the hard-charging McDonough simply never quits. He pulled out a 9-8 win, holding off a Long takedown attempt in the closing seconds.

The sport could use more, a lot more, matches like this down the road.

Kudos to Iowa for pulling out the win despite missing three injured starters. Iowa State beat all three Hawkeye backups.

Iowa State was missing top-ranked Nick Gallick, and he may be done for the year with a hip injury. Gallick's loss will make it difficult for the Cyclones to win the team title in March, but don't count the Cyclones out.

New ISU coach Kevin Jackson has certainly brought plenty of fire and intensity to the rivalry.

I can't wait to see how everything turns out in late March in Omaha.