California has a single class tournament and so does New Jersey. Doesn't seem to be hurting their participation. Maybe us as a wrestling community are hurting participation, maybe the focus on weight cutting instead of improving wrestling skill is hurting participation. Let's be honest, the wrestling community does a crap job of promoting the sport of wrestling. Strong youth wrestling and running youth clubs for the right reasons, especially when they are like 10 and under, will do wonders for participation. A classed state tournament doesn't increase participation, it decreases the quality of competition at all levels because it spreads top tier wrestlers out across multiple classes. A small school with a strong youth program will put state champions on the mat. How many high school coaches are putting the time in to set up a feeder program for their middle schools? How many are showing their faces at those practices, even if it's might be once a week or a couple times a month and building relationships with their future prospective wrestlers? Look at what happened when they classed basketball in Indiana. It destroyed a world class state series and objectively made the quality of the games and competition worse.