If you travel East to West on I-95 and US-6 without stopping, you can make it across all of Rhode Island in about 40 minutes. You’re going to wanna stop, however, and see the great wrestling.
With only 36 teams, the smallest state in the union is an example of quality over quantity: At last year’s New England championships, 22 of those 36 teams had at least one wrestler qualify for the tournament. Eight of those 22 teams had at least one wrestler that found the podium that weekend.
Currently New England allocations allow berths for 24 wrestlers to enter the tournament: Top seven in MA, top five in CT, and top three from ME, NH, VT and RI.: But is it time to make changes?
With wrestling in the region growing and the talent pool only getting deeper, the only reasonable response would be to grow the tournament, add more entries. Logistically, this would take some figuring out. Would the tournament be moved to three days? Would more mats be added? Would the podium expand to the top eight?. What could it look like if allocations per state were adjusted?
Idea 1: Giving Some Love To The Little Guys (28 Entries)
(Top 7-MA, Top 5-CT, Top 4-RI, Top 4-ME, Top 4- VT, Top 4-NH)
This idea boosts the current number of qualifiers from the smaller states. Rhode Island certainly deserves an extra qualifier and Maine wrestling is surely on the up as well. And to those who say these four states do not deserve an extra qualifier: Why not? What is wrong with growing the tournament and letting more athletes enter?
This idea would increase the current number of entries from 24 to 28—thus eliminating four byes. The only problem with that would be two state champions not receiving first-round byes. That is not THAT big of a problem when you consider the 27 and 28 seeds will always be a fourth place, seventh, or fifth place finisher from their state.
Idea 2: Skimming A Little Off The Top (24 Entries)
(Top 6-MA, Top 5-CT, Top 4-RI, Top 3-ME, Top 3-NH, Top 3, VT
It’s no secret that Massachusetts is the top wrestling state in New England; that’s why they get the qualifiers. But what if we evened the playing field between the top three states?
This proposed format takes the Massachusetts seventh-place finisher and gives that bid to the Rhode Island fourth-place finisher. The MA7 went 18-26 in 2023 on average going 1-2, the only outlier being Jerameel Vasquez (Hampden Charter East) who went 6-1 in the tournament and placed 3rd, the only 7th place finisher to do so.
Idea 3: Maximize it (32 Entries)
(Top 8-MA, Top 6-CT, Top 5-RI, Top 5-ME, Top 4-NH, Top 4-VT
This idea would fill brackets all the way to 32 entries allowing for zero byes during the event. Doing this would surely grow the sport and give more of a true “final post-season” tournament feel with full brackets and more wrestlers. While this idea is the most entertaining, it is also, sadly, the most difficult to pull off.
Ultimately the allocations are made based on population, so it is fitting that the four states each with under 1.5 million residents have three entries. Connecticut sits at around 3.6 million with Massachusetts at almost double that sitting close to 7 million. But maybe it is time to really look at quality over quantity. However maybe it is time to change the criteria
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