A diffrent thought

[technical violation]

As a long time reader of this forum, one of the main topics that seems to remerge , is the disparity between the # of aa/a , and aaa teams , and the toughness of the regions and state tournaments. I think there's a simple solution and it's immediately to the left of wv in ohio. Allow me to explain, in ohio , they have 3 divisions for wrestling , they realize that that is the # of divisions that will work for wrestling , now granted I know ohio has more population and schools , but I think there set up can work in wv with some tweaking . Ohio for example will in divisons 1, 2 , and 3 , have ex 72, 72, and 73 teams as evenly as possible , and if several schools have growing enrollments and some shrinking , they will adjust to keep it at this number as best as possible. If u look at wv there are 29 teams in aaa , and 67 in a/aa , if my figures are correct, now if u take 20 teams from a/aa and move them up that makes the count 49 to 47 . Now I know that some of these schools may only have a limited enrolment vs a team that has 1,000 plus kids to pick from, I'm not saying let's move a 300 enrollment up to aaa, but maybe look at a cutoff line of say 500 for example , and move some of these teams up , I strongly belive that , some of these smaller schools can go wrestle with south and JM, wp, parkersburg and other power teams, i feel teams like independence .. among some others , can hang .I think it makes regional a whole lot more interesting , plus not so many guys who can step on the scale and default 2 matches place 4th and make the state tourney, it's too watered down on one side , time to balance the scales , and even it out somewhat , it's just an idea ,and im sure this will get picked apart somewhat, but some polite debate is always fun , and I know there is a lot of new blood in the ssac and they seem eager to make some positive changes , maybe this could take shape In a few years , just a diffrent thought might be good for wrestling in wv

[Truesouthfaninhunt]

Personally , I am very much against anything that might alter, in any way the current PILL format. Its wonderful.

[mike.carman]

There is an even easier solution to this. Go with a single winner. Keep the pill and the regions. Make the regional tournaments bigger and tougher to get through and have 1 state champion -OR- get rid of the A/AA and AAA divisions all together and split the 4 regions into 8(still top 4 from each region) and allow for a 32 man bracket at states instead of 16.

[Bearhugger]

There is an even easier solution to this. Go with a single winner. Keep the pill and the regions. Make the regional tournaments bigger and tougher to get through and have 1 state champion -OR- get rid of the A/AA and AAA divisions all together and split the 4 regions into 8(still top 4 from each region) and allow for a 32 man bracket at states instead of 16.

Many ideas.

I do not know what the decision makers will ever do. However, after this season, I am sure there will be more unhappy fans than ever before due to the current arrangement.

[mike.carman]

There is an even easier solution to this. Go with a single winner. Keep the pill and the regions. Make the regional tournaments bigger and tougher to get through and have 1 state champion -OR- get rid of the A/AA and AAA divisions all together and split the 4 regions into 8(still top 4 from each region) and allow for a 32 man bracket at states instead of 16.

Many ideas.

I do not know what the decision makers will ever do. However, after this season, I am sure there will be more unhappy fans than ever before due to the current arrangement.

You are probably right.

[technical violation]

Many are unhappy with the regional allignments , this is no secret , for many years region 1 was the toughest now it has shifted and many don't like it for obvious reasons, we can either say like region 1 did for years grin and bear it or nake some noise and figure a better solution ....I'm all for a better idea, but it still goes back to my original idea

[coach_williams]

The thing that is often overlooked in these discussions is that while AA/A may have 67 teams, there will not be 67 wrestlers in each weight class at regional competitions. AA/A teams commonly have open weight classes and I will go so far as to say that the bottom 1/3rd of AA/A teams will have anywhere between 4 and 8 open weight classes, meaning that most regional competitions will have no more than 10-12 in each bracket even if there is 17 teams in the region.

Some evidence of this exists in last year's AA/A regional tournaments. Take Region 1 for example.
Region 1 had 13 teams last year. Here is ho their brackets looked:
106 - 7 wrestlers
113 - 9 wrestlers
120 - 8 wrestlers
126 - 9 wrestlers
132 - 10 wrestlers
138 - 11 wrestlers
145 - 12 wrestlers
152 - 9 wrestlers
160 - 10 wrestlers
170 - 10 wrestlers
182 - 10 wrestlers
195 - 9 wrestlers
220 - 9 wrestlers
285 - 8 wrestlers

So with 13 teams in the region they only managed double-digit numbers in a bracket 6 out of 14 classes and never had all 13 teams represented in a bracket. Adding 3 or 4 more teams to each AA/A region does not suddenly make AA/A loaded and AAA deprived.