You can check on Trackwrestling right now and see the Illinois' state championships coming up this weekend. There are 24 qualifiers at the Novice and Senior (our schoolboy) divisions for each weight class. There are three (3) wrestlers that qualify for state from each of the 8 regional tournament sites that were held last weekend around the state of Illinois. Basically, the IKWF runs it like the IHSA and the IHSAA with their state series. It's actually a pretty nice way of doing things BUT...
I think the ISWA will not make as much money from this and I am not saying this as a negative. The ISWA needs to make money so they can have better programs, tournaments, etc. so I completely understand the need to put cash in the account.
The subject of having an easier route still exists with the Illinois' format though, the champs from the regional get a first round bye and the 2nd and 3rd placers wrestle the first round but there is still a chance to have a bad draw vs. a good draw. You will never get rid of that totally but it does level the playing field and you certainly don't have 4-5 good wrestlers in one side of the bracket and one good one on the other side with the Illinois format.
It's something to explore and I am sure the ISWA is pondering this and other improvements. I do know that our head coach, Joe Willmann, is an ISWA section director for our region up here and if I know him, he would put in to hold a regional qualifier tournament here at Lowell if we ever did go to something like that.
Its interesting to think about...
p.s. I think Wisconsin has a very similar format that Illinois has...and the reason I refer to Illinois so much is because we spend so much time over there wrestling...I like to follow the boys from Illinois that Jake has wrestled throughout the years.