New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Michigan, Virginia, Illinois, etc.

What do all of the aforementioned states have in common? Actually a few things.

First all of the states mentioned on the Top 40 are states that have traditionally — as in over the last 40 years or so — produced more than their share of Division I and Olympic wrestlers. They all — with the exception of Montana, Florida and Delaware — have (or have had in the last 20 years) strong traditions of Division I wrestling at a national level. And most of them are states that contain many of the Top 25 Division I wrestling schools in the this country.

College wrestling breeds better high school wrestlers. I'm not sure exactly why, but it does. Maybe it's having the best in the country just a few miles away and having those day-to-day heroes to look up to. Whatever it is, we need it in Kansas.

All of this is why Baker University's efforts to bring college wrestling to Eastern Kansas is nothing but a good thing for this sport in the state. Bravo to their efforts, and as a body, we in wrestling in Kansas should start encouraging the other NAIA schools to examine this as a possibility.