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North Carolina: A, AA, AAA, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A, 8A?

BigFella235

BigFella235

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Aug 13, 2021
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Not terribly sure which thread would be most appropriate for this, but apparently North Carolina voted to move to 8(!) classifications for HS wrestling.

Scott Green and Scotti Sentes are among those championing the decision. They feel it’ll allow for greater diversity and revenue from the tournament.

Johnni DiJulius and Willie dissent, however. They, and many fans, are pointing out that the tournament will now be watered down and the “state champion” label will be much less lauded.

Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea. Watered down competition is a very real thing. VA is a prime example. They moved to 8 classifications years ago and there’s rarely anything good heard about their state tournament. I think GA has 4 classifications and they usually get crushed on the national stage too
 
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El_Jefe

El_Jefe

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BigFella235 said:
Not terribly sure which thread would be most appropriate for this, but apparently North Carolina voted to move to 8(!) classifications for HS wrestling.

Scott Green and Scotti Sentes are among those championing the decision. They feel it’ll allow for greater diversity and revenue from the tournament.

Johnni DiJulius and Willie dissent, however. They, and many fans, are pointing out that the tournament will now be watered down and the “state champion” label will be much less lauded.

Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea. Watered down competition is a very real thing. VA is a prime example. They moved to 8 classifications years ago and there’s rarely anything good heard about their state tournament. I think GA has 4 classifications and they usually get crushed on the national stage too
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If I squint hard enough -- really hard, like the son of Cathy Lee and Mr. Magoo -- I can see it for state duals, though even then, 8 is extreme.

But not for individual states. I don't know how they squeeze that into a weekend unless each classification only gets 4 qualifiers per weight. As far as watering down the titles goes:

 
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Psalm 1 guy

Psalm 1 guy

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El_Jefe said:
If I squint hard enough -- really hard, like the son of Cathy Lee and Mr. Magoo -- I can see it for state duals, though even then, 8 is extreme.

But not for individual states. I don't know how they squeeze that into a weekend unless each classification only gets 4 qualifiers per weight. As far as watering down the titles goes:

Click to expand...
Oregon, which has a population of 4.3 million, has five State wrestling championships, which works out to an individual champion per 1.16 million people. California, with a population of 39.4 million, is a single division state. If California followed Oregon's example then California would crown 34 state champions per weight!
 
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a_mshaffer

a_mshaffer

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Dec 8, 2014
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BigFella235 said:
Not terribly sure which thread would be most appropriate for this, but apparently North Carolina voted to move to 8(!) classifications for HS wrestling.

Scott Green and Scotti Sentes are among those championing the decision. They feel it’ll allow for greater diversity and revenue from the tournament.

Johnni DiJulius and Willie dissent, however. They, and many fans, are pointing out that the tournament will now be watered down and the “state champion” label will be much less lauded.

Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea. Watered down competition is a very real thing. VA is a prime example. They moved to 8 classifications years ago and there’s rarely anything good heard about their state tournament. I think GA has 4 classifications and they usually get crushed on the national stage too
Click to expand...
Yea Va has to hate this but it is primarily for the big time sports and it enables the inner city schools that have a decrease in enrollment to compete. Those are the schools that have a 'championship' history going back 50+ years. I'm a Hoosier fan (the movie)....enough said
 
El_Jefe

El_Jefe

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a_mshaffer said:
Yea Va has to hate this but it is primarily for the big time sports and it enables the inner city schools that have a decrease in enrollment to compete. Those are the schools that have a 'championship' history going back 50+ years. I'm a Hoosier fan (the movie)....enough said
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PA has 6 classifications for football and 2 for wrestling.
 
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psumac

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Sep 18, 2017
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BigFella235 said:
Not terribly sure which thread would be most appropriate for this, but apparently North Carolina voted to move to 8(!) classifications for HS wrestling.

Scott Green and Scotti Sentes are among those championing the decision. They feel it’ll allow for greater diversity and revenue from the tournament.

Johnni DiJulius and Willie dissent, however. They, and many fans, are pointing out that the tournament will now be watered down and the “state champion” label will be much less lauded.

Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea. Watered down competition is a very real thing. VA is a prime example. They moved to 8 classifications years ago and there’s rarely anything good heard about their state tournament. I think GA has 4 classifications and they usually get crushed on the national stage too
Click to expand...

easy. just turn the "state champs" into quarterfinalists.
 
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Dogwelder

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Aug 1, 2013
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Would it be “fair” to have a single state tournament, and then let the highest placing 8A kid, 7A kid, 6A kid, …, and 1A kid all call themselves state champions?

Admittedly, I don’t know how a gigantic bracket can be made to have places up to, say, 32. Double elimination would have to be replaced with some type of triple elimination or quadruple elimination. It might be too crazy with too many matches.
 
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SleepyLion

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Dogwelder said:
Would it be “fair” to have a single state tournament, and then let the highest placing 8A kid, 7A kid, 6A kid, …, and 1A kid all call themselves state champions?

Admittedly, I don’t know how a gigantic bracket can be made to have places up to, say, 32. Double elimination would have to be replaced with some type of triple elimination or quadruple elimination. It might be too crazy with too many matches.
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...or have the 8 classification tournament champions create a 8 person braket the very next weekend. 😎
 
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Folkstylefan

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Jan 19, 2019
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It should never be 1, there are many small schools who would never be able to compete with larger schools. If you take away the catholic schools who can recruit and a few others who seem to get away with recruiting most small schools could never challenge for a team title. The may get a individual champ. Number of eligible kids usually translates to getting more quality kids if the school is into wrestling.
 
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Sullivan

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According to AI:

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has 357 member schools with wrestling teams. Additionally, about 20 North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA) schools also have wrestling programs.

For comparison, there are 476 schools competing in boys' wrestling in Pennsylvania, according to the PIAA.

�

A		AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
District 1 (67 Schools)--661------
District 2 (28 Schools)--1612------
District 3 (93 Schools)--3063------
District 4 (36 Schools)--315------
District 5 (10 Schools)--10--------
District 6 (33 Schools)--267------
District 7 (85 Schools)--4144------
District 8 (5 Schools)--14------
District 9 (18 Schools)--153------
District 10 (31 Schools)--274------
District 11 (43 Schools)--2023------
District 12 (27 Schools)--621------
All Districts (476 Schools)--229247
 
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GregPickel

GregPickel

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Jul 25, 2021
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BigFella235 said:
Not terribly sure which thread would be most appropriate for this, but apparently North Carolina voted to move to 8(!) classifications for HS wrestling.

Scott Green and Scotti Sentes are among those championing the decision. They feel it’ll allow for greater diversity and revenue from the tournament.

Johnni DiJulius and Willie dissent, however. They, and many fans, are pointing out that the tournament will now be watered down and the “state champion” label will be much less lauded.

Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea. Watered down competition is a very real thing. VA is a prime example. They moved to 8 classifications years ago and there’s rarely anything good heard about their state tournament. I think GA has 4 classifications and they usually get crushed on the national stage too
Click to expand...
HATE reading this. I've never really heard anyone articulate a good reason to expand to six here in PA (though, if someone here has one, I'm all eyes!) though thankfully they had the sense to at least leave wrestling at just two. Eight is absurd.
 
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Smee

Smee

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Oct 11, 2021
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El_Jefe said:
If I squint hard enough -- really hard, like the son of Cathy Lee and Mr. Magoo -- I can see it for state duals, though even then, 8 is extreme.

But not for individual states. I don't know how they squeeze that into a weekend unless each classification only gets 4 qualifiers per weight. As far as watering down the titles goes:
Click to expand...
On point. For a "dual team" title, sure, have different classes since pulling from a larger pool gives an advantage to a school in that scoring system. But for an individual title? I could certainly agree with an argument for a single title at each weight. If you're the best 145 pounder in the state of PA, does it really matter if your high school has 100 kids or 2,000?
 
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El_Jefe

El_Jefe

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Smee said:
On point. For a "dual team" title, sure, have different classes since pulling from a larger pool gives an advantage to a school in that scoring system. But for an individual title? I could certainly agree with an argument for a single title at each weight. If you're the best 145 pounder in the state of PA, does it really matter if your high school has 100 kids or 2,000?
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IDK if this was a factor in the NC decision, but there's a school of thought that state champs get more college opportunities including scholarships. Therefore (8 brackets) x (14 weights) = 112 college scholarships per high school graduation class. And with a limited number of college scholarships, that gives our state's kids an advantage.

It's idiotic -- especially when PA state champs are walking on in college -- and ignores how college coaches actually evaluate prospects. But that line of thinking exists.

Another possible angle is high school NIL. The local state champ maybe could earn a little money that the local S6 or non-placer won't. Can't imagine it's much money, but non-zero.
 
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WexfordWarrior

WexfordWarrior

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Jun 3, 2025
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I moved to NC about 10 years ago. Wrestling interest here is very low. Maybe having lots of state champs will inspire some siblings, neighbors, relatives etc. to take up the sport. I attended a GW v Campbell match near my home in Shelby. Maybe 10 people in the stands. The Stash saw my PSU shirt and gave the terminal stare. Then he burst out laughing and fist bumped me.
 
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tullfan68

Sophomore
Jun 20, 2021
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Folkstylefan said:
It should never be 1, there are many small schools who would never be able to compete with larger schools. If you take away the catholic schools who can recruit and a few others who seem to get away with recruiting most small schools could never challenge for a team title. The may get a individual champ. Number of eligible kids usually translates to getting more quality kids if the school is into wrestling.
Click to expand...
well watch Hoosiers lots of smaller schools beat bigger schools back in the day then they changed the rules!
 
P

pawrstlersinpa

Senior
Jan 26, 2013
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Sullivan said:
According to AI:

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has 357 member schools with wrestling teams. Additionally, about 20 North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA) schools also have wrestling programs.

For comparison, there are 476 schools competing in boys' wrestling in Pennsylvania, according to the PIAA.

�

A		AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
District 1 (67 Schools)--661------
District 2 (28 Schools)--1612------
District 3 (93 Schools)--3063------
District 4 (36 Schools)--315------
District 5 (10 Schools)--10--------
District 6 (33 Schools)--267------
District 7 (85 Schools)--4144------
District 8 (5 Schools)--14------
District 9 (18 Schools)--153------
District 10 (31 Schools)--274------
District 11 (43 Schools)--2023------
District 12 (27 Schools)--621------
All Districts (476 Schools)--229247
Click to expand...
happy days GIF
 
T

tullfan68

Sophomore
Jun 20, 2021
176
140
43
so Cali has 1 champ the largest state in the country I don't see anyone there complaining!
 
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