Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Seeding Criteria

If I thought a wrestler was good enough to be the 1 seed - as a coach I would take 4,5 or 8. All on the same side of the bracket. Same thought process on the 2 & 3 seed take 6 or 7 and quit the discussion.

If you are the one seed you don't say a word. You are the best and don't care. If it were only as easy as you say. The biggest arguments are usually between 3 and 4 or getting seeded and not!

Dark horse is always a good spot. Ask Cody Brewer. He was a 13th seed (so in the 4 side off the bracket) he beat the 4, 1 and all from the other side. That same bracket the 12 beat the 5 and the 7 beat the 2. The seeding committee missed a few in that one But the cream rose on that weekend.

I think everyone can agree Brewer deserve a seed better than 13 before the tournament even started.

How many posters on this topic have ever run a seeding meeting or actually sat in on a high school or college seeding meeting?

Last years DI nationals seeding info - some of the smartest wrestling minds are in the room. 6 of the 10 number 1 seeds(60 percent) won the tournament.

125. - Tomasello the 4 seed won it all the 2 seed got beat in the round of 16 by unseeded Moisey who made the finals.

133 Brewers weight

141 1 seed Steiber won it - unseeded Kevin Jack beat the 4 seed and made it to semi's

149 1,2,3,5 made semi's

157 1,2,3,4 - only weight that got all 4 in the semi's

165 1,5,6,15 in semi's

174 8,12,3,2 seeds made semi's

184 1,13, unseeded,7 made the semi's

197 1,4,3,10 seeds made semi's

Hwt 1,5,6,2 seeds made semi's

In the 2014 DI national tournament only 3 of the 10 number 1 seeds (30 percent) actually won the tournament. 7 of the winners were either seeded 1st or 2nd. The other three weights were won by 3,3, and 5 seeded wrestlers.

There was a video on flo about the seeding for Nationals. It's not a panel in a room or coaches arguing for their wrestlers. Everything is entered into a computer and the seeds are figured from that. Brewer was the 13th seed because he missed most of the year and only had 16 wins.

But the criteria for the computer is developed by a panel
of wrestling people. Coaches panel and RPI - ranking panel index all year long. They have seeding meetings at all the qualifier conference and regionals leading up to nationals as well. They also have seeding meetings at some of the big collegiate tournaments (Scuffle, Midlands, Reno, Duals etc.) throughout the year. Some of those events are definitely considered in the computer program. It is all a logical process - but sometimes it just comes down to what wrestler is peeking at the right time in the final outcome of the tournament results.

In my mind that 13th seed was just as good as a 4 seed for Brewer. The unseeded guys that made the Semi's makes everyone think about the process.

They are dealing with a pool of 730 wrestlers. That makes things way easier than dealing with four states of high school wrestlers. There were a potential of 504 varsity wrestlers at the bobcat alone. Throw in just the other 2500 Kansas varsity wrestlers and you have five times the competitors to evaluate. Not even an apples to apples discussion. Sorry. .

Now let's discuss the broad range of skills in HS be the FACT that ALL D1 wrestlers are at a level with much less variation.

And yes smokey I have done all of the above.

The Bobcat had 10 of the 14 number 1 seeds win it. 12 of the 14 either 1 or 2 seeded. The other 2 weights were 4th and 5th(these are good places to be) seeded and had to go through the 1 seed to win it all and they did it. Just at a glance (on paper/computer) for this type of multi-state tournament they did a pretty good job of seeding. Sometimes guys wrestle above and below their seed - it happens every weekend.

Number 1 can be an issue with seeding. But not really. The Newton tournament did a good job of seeding based on the available info of the predominately instate teams. 10 of the weight classes were won by the 1st or 2nd seeded wrestler. Only 5 of the weight classes were won by the number 1 seeded wrestler.
Weight and seed below:
106. - 2
113 - 3
120 - 5 (good sleeper seeds)
126 - 2
132 - 1
138 - 1
145 - 1
152 - 2
160 - 2
170 - 1
182 - 2
195 - 1
220 - 6(good sleeper seed)
Hwt - 4(take care of business - then beat the - 1) in the finals with a chance to stand on top of the podium and he did I it!

If they gave hardware for seeds their would be no need to wrestle - we could do it all on a computer.

One of the Toughest Tournaments we have ever been too, Geary Oklahoma, was a blind draw. NO SEEDS. First round this year had two nationally ranked kids. They do have a wrestle back for a true second. Saves a lot of time and headaches not having to go to the pissing match, errr Seeding Meeting.

Kansas City Stampede - 2015

Based on how the 16 are placed in the bracket AFTER the pools(some wrestlers get in favorable pools) - so there is some seeding criteria for the pools.
- "All head coaches will have to provide accurate information on their wrestlers in order to insure the top wrestlers are separated." This is not always done properly - unfortunately.


Pool Placement – There is no seeding of the tournament. We will place the wrestlers into the pools, working to separate the best wrestlers into different pools. The pool placement will be based on national rankings, national tournament results, prior state tournament results in your home state, and past win-loss records. Rankings and input from nationally respected columnists may be considered for guidance on this process. Additionally, we will try to separate in the pools all wrestlers that could possibly meet each other at any other time during the regular season. If you compete against any of the other teams in the tournament anytime during your regular season please let us know as soon as possible. All head coaches will have to provide accurate information on their wrestlers in order to insure the top wrestlers are separated. The pool placement will be finalized no later than Wednesday evening, December 16th.

We've digressed. I was looking for direct feedback to the hierarchical criteria list at the onset of this stream. A general set of guidelines that any tournament could use. I feel the true second match is impractical and could also be impeded by the five match NFHSA restricrion. Every tournament has some good ideas and there are some that get totally wacky. Some coaches have team scoring more in mind than the goal of equitable separation. I would just like to see direct critiquing of the initially listed points of seeding emphasis.