Division I- Division II Split

[Bruinsdad]

2 State champs in 1 weight class isn't too bad. We could be like GA and 5???

 

So it could be worse!!

[cbg]

Or it could be better and we could have 1 state champion instead of 2. PA only has 2 state champions and they have 3X has many schools wrestling as Tennessee does. There is a large segment in PA that would like to go back to 1 state champion like California.

[luchador]

How about 8 state champs like we have in football. That surely would solve everything.

As much as I would like to see 1 champ, the other sports with divisions don't fuss and complain about trying to obtain 1 true champion. My only issue has been and always will be with depth of the state placers. Anything below 3rd in Division II seems unecessary. Wrestlers place in the state in DII that might never qualify for state if they were united. Yeah, yeah DII supporters, there are also wresters in DI that would never qualify if they were together also. And there are some in DI that might not place if they were together. What I can assure you is that those place winners in DI are all quality wrestlers. No one lucks into placing based on a blind draw. The 1999 McCallie 275lb wrestler placed because he made weight. There were only 6 in his weight class. 0-3 and a state placer for life. There are kids with losing records that place in DII. Maybe it will one day come together, but I am not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.

[SurferDude288]

California has over 900 schools with wrestling programs and 1 true champion. Indiana has more schools that TN and only 1 true state champion. New York has more schools than anyone except California and 1 true state champion. Why can't TN have 1 champion.

[luchador]

Football and Basketball coaches across the state want to have a better chance to win a championship. With more divisions comes more trophies to dole out. Remeber that it was not the wrestling community that pushed for the split. There was tension between some wrestling programs, but no one was campaigning for a split.

[takedown3]

This thread has devolved into a Public-Private Debate. There already is a board for that topic where no one has ever changed anyone else's opinion. Every conceivable argument pro and con has been made a thousand times with no resolution.

[Edited by takedown3 on 4-14-03 6:36P]

[Bruinsdad]

I for one would like to see one true state champion.

And as for the Tn residency thing, if you are born in Tn, you are a native, and if you have legal residence here, you live here. Legal residence would be good enough.

[tnmat]

Those states do have more than one division... it's just that they keep the individual championship one big tourney, while the duals are split into multiple divisions. I see nothing wrong with this system, and don't understand why we can't do this.

 

I believe that the only thing keeping TN from having a combined indiv. tournament is the TSSAA. Indiana has an individual tournament with no team scores. I think an approach like this one could work. I just think that it takes all of the coaches and athletes coming together for it.

 

I can't think of any reason why anyone would be opposed to such a proposal... DI or DII. A DI Dual Championship, a DII Dual Championship, and a combined individual tournament... I truly think it could work. The question is not whether it would work or not, though. The question is whether or not people will unite to make such a plan come to fruition.

 

If I were 5 years older, I'd be in the thick of things and trying to make it happen, but I'm a college student with too much studying to do before I can even think of doing something like that. My hope is that someone will have the guts to step out from the crowd and be a leader... but my guess is that we are lacking in the "leaders" area at this time. However, I would not be disappointed if someone proved me wrong.

[HHSWR]

A combined individal tournament with 8 place winners has been proposed and shot down by D-I coaches by a huge majority.

[Asylamer]

luchador, "...it was not the wrestling community that pushed for the split....no one was campaigning for the split..." is certainly not an accurate history of all of the wrestling community's sentiments during the years leading up to the split.

 

Chattanooga/Nashville/other newspaper archives possibly have stories that document a different sentiment expressed by some of the wrestling community surrounding a court hearing held in Chattanooga during the first half of the last decade.

 

Some other posters have alluded to wrestling's non-involvement in the split. Insofar as influence goes, that may be true. But insofar as sentiment goes, not true. In the accounts of which I'm aware of the DI coaches' group when considering proposals to recommend change in the current tournament format, the coaches have overwhelmingly rejected change. If this information is accurate, it does not support the idea that the split was just about football...and basketball.

[tnmat]

Are you sure that it was only DI coaches? No DII coaches?

[Asylamer]

tnmat, "In accounts of which I am aware of the DI coaches' group..." sums up what I am sure of and my comment sums up what I intended to say.

 

Just as an added item of information for you, however, one of those DI rejections came as a proposal/suggestion from the DII coaches...the idea that you have apparently bought into...separate duals, one individual. And to offer one possible answer to your question in your earlier post, "How can anyone be opposed to that?": A knowledge of history borne by years of observation of cause and effect.