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New procedures for Team State qualification to offset covid; event tentatively January 8, 2022; CLASSIFICATION data now posted


maligned

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Next year's Team State will tentatively be held on January 8, 2022. (January 1 is a Saturday.)

 

Several changes will be mentioned in the Team State selection procedures document that will be out later this week. These are primarily being put in place to offset some of the impact that covid will have on teams' qualifying scores:

 

1. In 3A and 4A, exactly 6 of the 8 bids will be via automatic qualification, rather than 6 or 7. (Best 3 semi-state highest scores, 2 highest remaining scores as wildcards, then either the 4th semi-state "winner" if they are in the top 10 overall or a 3rd automatic wildcard.) The 1A and 2A classes remain unchanged in terms of automatic bids (10 of the 12).

 

Rationale: More flexibility for intelligently picking both the 7th and 8th teams in 3A and 4A with so many covid issues at play.

 

2. Only one of the two vote-in choices in each class will be made by the selection committee in April following the season. The final vote-in selection will be made in mid-December 2021 so that one team per class will receive a last-minute bid based on in-season evidence.

 

Rationale: Last-minute invitations after teams had to pull out this year worked well. Especially in a season that will still be so impacted by covid, this will give us the chance to do a trial run of inviting a few deserving teams based on in-season merit that may be hit by significant issues during the upcoming state series. It means four teams will have to pull out of event commitments at the last minute, but it feels like a sacrifice many will consider worth making--especially considering the unusual circumstances.

 

3. The vote-in pool for the April wildcard selection in each class will be expanded to consider certain covid-affected teams. Any team affected by covid that does not earn enough points to qualify for the voting process will be given a chance to present evidence based on a) individuals' in-season head-to-head wins or b) individuals' past season accomplishments that demonstrates they would have earned a qualifying score within 5 points of the first two available vote-in candidates. With this specific level of evidence, those covid-affected teams will be considered in the voting process in April for the next-to-last wildcard spot.

 

Rationale: Numerous schools that are clear contenders for spots are already being impacted significantly at sectional. Sadly, we imagine there will be others in the coming rounds. If results-based evidence for wrestlers who missed part or all of the state series because of covid can be presented, we want those kids' schools to be considered.

 

4. All schools in the state will be considered for the final spot in the event at the time of the December 2021 vote, regardless of their qualification score this season.

 

Rationale: This gives one final "catch-all" for recognizing one deserving team, previously uninvited because of covid or other issues, that should be in the event. With all that's happening surrounding this current season and the impact on next season, we imagine ADs and tournament directors will be flexible and understanding for 4 of the 300 schools in the state to make a last-minute change to their schedule. If it is received well by coaches and ADs, this procedure for last-minute bids for one school per class may continue beyond next year as well.

 

 

Edited by maligned
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One more clarification that Y2 reminded me of that's different for this "covid" year specifically:

 

For classification purposes, we want the size of each class to resemble what it will be in normal years going forward. To ensure this, instead of maintaining a hard line of 7+ wrestlers needed to be included in classification, we will most likely include some teams with less than 7 wrestlers. The process for this year only:

 

--Count the number of teams at each participant level breaking point (7+, 6+, etc.)

--Include all teams at the lowest breaking point that would not count more teams than 2020.

(Example: All teams with at least 6 sectional wrestlers totals less than 2020. Including teams with 5 wrestlers is more than 2020. This is our classification inclusion breaking point and we include the teams with 6 or more.)

--Classify according to school size following 2020 parameters for the four classes.

--Any team not included in classification that had very significant covid issues that puts them in position to apply for vote-in consideration will simply be added to the class in which their enrollment fits--even though they won't have been part of the original count. (In the very unusual instance that a team is not originally classified and has an enrollment exactly between two classes, they will be in the lower enrollment class.)

 

(We classified 277 teams last year. Unofficially right now, there are 276 teams with 6+ wrestlers. That number will probably decrease with more last-minute forfeits, but it will probably end up as our breaking point for the unusual classification count this year.)

Edited by maligned
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  • 2 weeks later...

Below are PROVISIONAL classification numbers for the 2021-2022 season. If you recall, we always use the new IHSAA numbers when they come out in an odd-numbered February. HOWEVER, if the new numbers aren't released by Friday, February 19 (Friday of state finals), we will use these numbers and no changes will be made.

 

As we stated above, we dipped into teams with 8 forfeits for classification counting to keep the numbers in each class near last year's numbers. As we TEMPORARILY stand, the only impact was that Southridge and Western Boone drop from 2A into 1A. As always, we will use our counted group of schools from scratch if the new IHSAA numbers are released before the state finals since the new numbers are meant to govern next season's sports. 

 

Here's the list:

Team State Classification 2021.pdf

 

 

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  • maligned changed the title to New procedures for Team State qualification to offset covid; event tentatively January 8, 2022; CLASSIFICATION data now posted
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