[quote] I am just having a very difficult time understanding why the wrestling community would want potential state placers not able to compete at the state tournament just because they happen to go to the same school that maybe the state champion or potentially higher state placer attends. It makes no sense to me how anyone thinks that allowing both of these potential high state placers from the same high school to compete at state would lessen the quality of competition at the state tournament. In my opinion, it would definitely improve the quality of the competition. I believe that in 2007 if we had a modified Montana system in place that allowed a team to take say 18 wrestlers to regionals (four over the current 14) that Aquinas would have probably qualified all 18 instead of the 14 that we did qualify that year and I know that you would have had four qualifiers that would have definitely added to the level of competition at state. These extra four wrestlers were wrestlers who would have probably had winning varsity records in at least 75% of their matches and I believe could have placed at state that year. It would not surprise me if teams like Lansing, Emporia, and Colby to name a few could have done the same this year. It could be said very year about a number of teams.
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In my experience, if you can't beat a guy at a weight you move up or down a weight. Theres 14 spots to try out for, why give a team the bonus to add more kids. I can see the modified system working in Montana due to the extreme watered down competition of 14 schools in a class. But even in watered down Kansas with 32, I would be rare for JV kids would be placing in state. I don't remeber that really good Aquinas state champ team having 14 state placers. So how are the JV kids going to better than the varsity kids. Yea, the JV kid have qualified for state, but that doesn't mean much when getting to state is so easy.
Hypothetically, say the big class in Kansas was the top 64 schools or 6A and 5a combined. I bet you only half of the Aquinas kids would have gone to state from that good team. A state qualifer also would actually mean you have some real wrestling skill. It means you earned something.
Also on the NAIA going to allowing 2 kids per class. I think this in response to the small amount of NAIA schools remaining with wrestling. The NAIA level of competion has dropped so many programs over the years due to all the schools dropping wrestling or going to D2. Not a bad idea becuase there's less than 30 schools that wrestle now so this does raise the level of wrestling. Again the Montana system is not bad when you have a small number schools.
