How can you call yourself "state champ" when there are three others who can claim exactly the same title? There are only 2.25 million people in the state of Kansas and we crown four state champs. In 5A and 6A 1/2 of the competitors qualify for state. In my opinion it is time to combine 4A, 5A, & 6A. It is time to stop keeping team score at an individual state championship. Create a dual state for the various differences in enrollments and let the individuals claim a real state championship. (See New York)

If you do this you will have to do this for every sport since they have the same arguement.

Chewie,
Are you serious? There is NO competitive advantage in an individual competition but there definitely is in a team competition. I will agree with you concerning golf, tennis, cross country, and individual track & swimming events but not football, basketball, and baseball.

I don't think that it would ever fly. You would have to do the same thing to track, tennis, cross country, swimming, and golf. I don't think the KSHSAA would ever do that. I think they think that the current situation works fine.

Why don't we look for a minute at how many schools in Kansas actually have wrestling. It's less than 200, with two classes of 32. That's vastly too small. I believe (and this may be off a bit) it's something like 32 in 6A and 5A, 64 in 4A and the remaining 72 in 3-2-1A.
And while I use Iowa as an example a lot (sue me, I grew up there), they have 64 teams in 3A, 96 in 2A and over 130 in 1A. So what we have is 300 teams in three classes (Iowa) as opposed to 168 in four classes (Kansas).
Maybe at some point we need to look at this. Every year some 3-2-1A schools drop wrestling due to lack of numbers. For the competitive sake of the sport, maybe we need to start looking at three classes in Kansas(48 in Division I, 64 in Division II and the remainder in Division III). I'm not advocating going out next week and doing this, however it's day may be coming. It may be time we start looking into tightening up the talent pool.
We always have to remember that sometimes change is good and that sometimes change is necessary. In the long run, this change would be good and sometime in future, it might be necessary. Not just yet, but someday.

why don't we do what we use to do and have a grand state. where the top 4 in each class compete.

Here is a thought we take the champion from each class and from that point put the four champions in a round robin bracket. There would be tons of great matches there and it would be one day maybe the kshsaa would like it better if we kept it to a one day tournament.

the problem with that is that what if a kid got lucky. I mean their all good but what if one wrestler wasn't up to par and got beat by a kid worst than him.

Lots of good ideas floating around.

I would love to see a state dual meet where the top 2 teams from 3A and 4A, and the top team from 5A and 6A (simply due to the number of schools within each class i.e. 2 per 72 schools for 3A, 2 per 64 schools for 4A, and 1 ea for the 32 schools in 5 and 6A) wrestle one week after state matches. That gives the kid who might not have made state but contributed to the team's success share in the title.
I can also envision Grand State returning with 4 placers (with alternates 5 and 6 for each A class). The reasons it went away in 1977 - too long a season, dangerous to the wrestlers, etc.- are moot in 2002.
I could even see a 5 State "Mid-West Challenge" where the Top Dual Team in the state represents KS against MO, OK, NE and IA (round robin). Talk about excitement!
This simply takes acknowledgment at the KSHSAA level that the wrestling season can: 1) start a week earlier 2) last a week longer 3) wrestle through the xmas break - without impairing any spring sport or academic endeavor. If cost is a factor, then let the KSHSAA lay out minimum requirements.

Perhaps a state-wide petition, with signatures from EVERY school (students, administrators and parents) within the state, presented to the appropriate decision maker could pull this off.

Anybody know if any of the state legilsators on the State Education Committees wrestle?

Although the four champions in a round-robin idea sounds a little fat fetched, I think it would be pretty interesting. It would also end alot of debates on this forum, too. I reall doubt it'll ever happen though.