Before I get into the meat of this post answer this question. These 6 weights in the 2008 state tournament are quite unique in one way; 125D, 135B, 140D, 152D, 189B, 285B. What is unique about these weights? I'll answer at the end. Don't cheat, figure it out on your own.

Red Rocker's post in the Final Vote for State Tournament Ideas brought up a lot of questions.
Follow this link to read what happened last year, then scroll down the thread to bdoggy's post about attending district meetings. Go read them and come right back. Don't go to the refrigerator.

https://huskermat.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7476003901/m/5831052142

I assume that NSAA sent a request to each school to vote in their district meetings on a topic that would come up on the agenda of a future NSAA meeting. One of the items related to seeding district winners in the state tournament. We all know that a polling organization can ask questions in such a way that they influence the answer. For example, When did you stop beating your wife? Did NSAA ask the question in that way or was it a straight up, "We want to know what you think" question? If the question was asked in such a way as to skew the answer then it becomes the responsibility of the Nebraska State Wrestling Coaches Association to find out why when they meet with NSAA and the Board of Control. Oh, you say they don't meet with NSAA and the Board of Control. Why not? Have the wrestling coaches of the state united under one organization and requested a meeting with the powers to be? Could they honestly go to NSAA and the Board of Control and say, "We represent over 95% of the wrestling coaches in Nebraska and feel that as the group with the largest 'hands on' involvement in our state's wrestling program we should be entitled to be heard in policy making decisions".

If NSAA asked it as a straight up question then the we must ask, "Why did the districts vote it down by such a wide margin?" bdoggy said that in the meetings he has attended the superintendents did most of the voting. I don't mean to make a blanket indictment of superintendents but in the 3 schools where I taught the list of factors for making a decision started with, (1) Who will this upset downtown? (2) We've never done it this way before. (Somewhere between 100 and 150) What will be best for the kids?

I don't think most superintendents are concerned about ruffling feathers with a vote to seed the state wrestling tournament. NSAA seeds in football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, plus they may seed in other sports that I know about. The shakers and movers downtown don't get upset because those others are seeded. They get upset because the seeding doesn't work very well.

I don't think the superintendents vote out of concern for ruffling feathers. It looks to me like we have 2 reasons why they voted NO. (1) They went with the, "We've never done it his way before" decision making process. If the coaches want seeding it should be easy to show the superintendent that it would be good for the sport without ruffling feathers or involving taxpayer money. (2) Their coaches didn't want the seeding in the manner it was presented. The seeding procedure for the districts is destined to fail because it will almost end up seeding on record (percentage of wins). I'll write another post on that as I don't want to clutter up this one with too many things.

I've used the word superintendent throughout this post. I should have used the word "voter", whether it is principal, AD, or whoever. If the coaches want seeding are they presenting the facts, and a workable plan, to the voter in their school? If they have a workable plan I hope they will post it so I can get on board. I think I have given the impression that I'm opposed to seeding. Not at all. I would be thrilled if the best wrestler met the 4th best in the semi-finals and 2nd and 3rd were in the opposite bracket. I just don't know how to determine who 1 through 4 are. We are hearing lots of political speeches promising an end to all wars, an end to all poverty, more services with lower taxes, no more dandelions in our lawns, and no more flies or mosquitoes. When asked how they are doing to do that they tend to mumble a lot or use the old standby, "I have a plan but I won't reveal it until after I am elected because I don't want my opponent to steal it". This is what I am getting with the poll. When I set up the Final Vote I asked that if you vote for seeding to send me a workable plan or volunteer to write the letter to NSAA. I have not been overwhelmed with either plans or volunteers. In fact, I've been quite underwhelmed.

Now let's go to the question I asked at the beginning of this post. Many of the posts favoring seeding say that they don't want the 2 best wrestlers meeting in the semi-finals. The 6 weight classes that I cited at the beginning of this post are the ONLY 6 of 56 weights (10.7%) where the 4 district champions made it to the semi-finals. We had one class where the 4 semi-finalists all came out of the same district so we had a 1-2-3-4. And I don't believe that any amount of seeding would have changed that.

I'll start another post about the district seeding plan now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frank Ryan,