Leading off today: The committee studying alternatives to the current format for the state wrestling tournament has taken the next step by developing a draft of what a new layer of qualifying events would look like.

   The plan calls for each section of the NYSPHSAA plus the CHSAA and PSAL to send representatives to one of five regional competitions in Division I; with no CHSAA teams in Division II, the small-school format has a slightly different alignment and consists of four regionals.

   The regional meets, which would be held a week ahead of the NYSPHSAA meet, would funnel 16 wrestlers per weight class into the championship weekend. The draft document, D-1 and D-2 allocation data are available in PDF format on the ArmDrag.com site.

   The draft, once revisions are finalized, will have to go through several layers of approval before being implemented. And while the proposal does smooth out some of the remaining inequities in berths per section since the state meet began including wild-card qualifiers, there are still several stumbling blocks:

   (1) Nailing down suitable locations for the nine regional meets each year since one of the stated goals is to avoid the expense of overnight stays.

   (2) How will officials be selected? The Long Island Region (Sections 8. 11) in Division I and the Western Region (Sections 5 and 6) in both classes are two-section meets. Neutral refs won't be possible in matches unless officials from outside sections are brought in.

   (3) How will first-round byes be awarded? Regional fields will consist of between six and 12 wrestlers per class. Only three of the nine meets would have bracket-friendly eight-man fields.

   (4) What are the implications for other individual-driven

championships such as swimming, tennis and track and field? "Fairness" has been the buzzword in the crusade to change the way the wrestling tournament is conducted, so wouldn't/shouldn't athletes in those sports be entitled to similar consideration?

   (5) Will the regionals negatively affect sectional and post-sectional meets across the state? Weight classes in the Western Region, for instance, would consist of six Rocheter-area and five Buffalo-area wrestlers who advance out of the so-called "Supersectional" meets. What's to prevent multiple forfeits in Supersectional championship finals and wrestleback finals as wrestlers try to avoid injuries in now-meaningless matches? We're headed for lawsuits if genuinely injured athletes were forced to wrestle to avoid being disqualified from attending the regional meet.

   Ditto for the regional meets, each of which decide between two and five state berths per class. I wouldn't want to dish out $4 or $6 to attend the regionals' final session only to discover that four or five finals were walkovers.

   All in all, though, the concept has a lot of merit to it. It will be interesting to see what sort of modifications are proposed in the coming weeks.

   Speaking of wrestling: Our first set of rankings for the 2007-08 season have been released. Spencerport (Division I) and Phoenix (Division II) start the season at No. 1.

   Extra points: To absolutely no one's surprise, there were no New Yorkers on USA Today's football All-American squad announced today. The last New York player to make the first team was Leon Williams of Canarsie High in 2000. Before that, you need to go back to Marquise Walker of Syracuse Henninger in 1997. . . . In hockey, Queensbury forward Taylor Vaughn took 37 stitches in one of his legs after being sliced by a skate Friday during a game against LaSalle. He'll miss a minimum of two weeks of action.

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