Galagore

Add uniform cost, and it's in excess of $54k.

The quality of our best wrestlers is fantastic. Now we need to figure out a way to improve our average wrestlers. Without them, the sport is difficult to maintain long term.

Yes, you are correct. One of the great things about round robin is the day usually goes more quickly because you can determine when and where everyone will wrestle way in advance. We wrestled round robin/USA mat time at Penn this year. My older son got in 9 matches and we were at BWs eating lunch by 1:30.

Not all of us live in areas that have many friendship meets. And I say if there are more than five kids, split into two groups. Why is bracketing important for the youth?

One thing that has always struck me as counter-productive is bracketed tournaments at the youth and middle school levels. The best wrestlers get to wrestle the most matches, and the kids who are still learning/struggling get a couple and are done. Wouldn't it be better for the health of the sport to run all of these youth and middle school tournaments round-robin style? That way everyone gets a good amount of mat time, and the kids who are (currently) the weakest get a chance at a competitive match against each other. I suppose wrestling 8-man brackets to 8 places could accomplish the same thing. Nothing feeds the fire quite like some success and feeling good about at least one match you've wrestled during the day - even if it's one you don't actually win.

No, I don’t think classing will hurt other sports. As for the rest of your post, I think you are confusing my reasoning with Joe’s. My main reason has always been that we should class wrestling (and all individual sports) for the same reason we class the rest: fairness. An athlete at a small school is almost playing a different sport than one at a large school. It makes a lot of sense to me to classify as such. Everyone can make choices and adjustments, but to say that generally a wrestler at a small school has pretty much the same opportunity as one at a large school seems absurd.

Why does having three classes mean we might as well go to six? Does having four qualifiers at each level mean we might as well have 8? Does having 14 weight classes mean we might as well have 28? Does the logic only apply to classes?

I think 3 days for state finals is too much. I also think the format should be three classes - Big, Small, Private.

Pretty sure Coach Snyder is also a proponent of class wrestling, so excellent example.

Doesn't the bold statement sound like something that would support classing wrestling? Don't athletes who have this type of environment built in have an advantage over those who have to seek it out?

Love you logic, but no one will bite. These types of thought experiments rarely get honestly thought through.

The rest of the wrestling is to crown the team champion.

What if there was no change in forfeits, but numbers of athletes wrestling in college could be shown to improve based on class wrestling? Would you consider classing a positive under those circumstances?

I think there is one the key point that you glossed over, which I put in bold faced font. Sometimes we tend to think people just "know" Indiana wrestling and "what it means" to be a "ticket rounder" or a qualifier. Guessing your experience is closer to reality. Especially if your college aspirations take you outside the 4-5 state area.

I suppose people who win local tournaments just throw their medals in the trash. If winning a state tournament with 100+ schools involved is being "handed a medal", how lame is it to win a mid-season or conference tournament with only 8 teams involved?