Thank you for the reply. I apologize for the Mr. vs Ms. thing. Here was a reply I saw posted back in March '08, thus the confusion.

"They only take 4 from each district. And if any district only has less than 4, then there is the bye. I know it sucks as it affected my son several times 2-3 years ago when there were 2 byes at state."

I know that in '07 I asked this question and got the same response, but the post history doesn't seem to go back that far. We had an eight man bracket at Districts, another District only had two. Two byes followed that bracket to State (either no alternates could go, or they were not invited, or the rules were different at that time).

The bottom line for me is that I think it is great that they will allow alternates to compete to fill up the bracket at State if another District can't fill their four spots.