Is it time to rethink the postseason scenario for the state team wrestling championships?

I see Bradley Central, Cleveland, Ooltewah, Soddy-Daisy and Walker Valley fighting for two spots in the state duals and I see a mistake rather quickly.

Only two of them will get to advance to Clarksville, although we’re talking about at least four teams that have dominated the state duals. And most coaches will tell you that Ooltewah, which stayed at home this year, or Walker Valley, which has never gotten to a state duals tournament, could have bested at least half of the teams that were there last weekend.

So I have a suggestion.

Why not scrap the districts and put a playoff format similar to that used in football in place for teams to advance? Take the top four in each region, scrapping region duals and going instead with region ranking based on regular season results and tie-breakers if necessary.

You then divide the state into east and west divisions and have two 16-team sub-state tournaments. If the top eight advance from each sub-state, your 16-team state bracket is filled. Seed those 16 based on win percentage against the state field, or match No. 8 from one sub-state against No. 1 from the other and so on.

Worried about the same match-ups every year? Then match northeast against southeast and central against west one year and rotate the geographic matchups each year.

Extra expense? I don’t think that is much of an issue, even in these tough economic times. A number of coaches already are interested in returning to a rotation of the state duals site and some teams travel lengthy distances already to participate in weekend invitational and regional dual tournaments.

If you wanted, you could let the top four from each sub-state advance, cutting the Class AAA field to eight teams, which would allow the state to utilize a similar format for A/AA and still bring Division II back under the same roof rather than sending those teams to Father Ryan, as has been the case in the last two years.

You could also could also have four sub-states rather than two and advance either two teams or four depending on your wants or needs.

Is it a matter of getting the best teams to the state tournament or of providing equal representation? The latter seems to be the decision that would be more politically correct, but the aforementioned scenario addresses both issues.

We need to make certain that we are getting true state champions and that the best teams are getting the opportunity to compete. If that is not the primary concern then what are you folks — you TSSAA officials and you coaches — doing and why?