Serving up the best of the Southern Scuffle: What were the best years and weights?

The Southern Scuffle emerged in 2003 and has annually been one of the most compe in-season college wrestling tournaments. What have been some of the best team and individual performances of all time?

Mark Twain is often credited for popularizing a saying related to the persuasion of statistics – perhaps you’ve heard it.

There’s lies, damn lies and statistics.

In the world of wrestling, statistics have been one of the sore points in the sport. We don’t have national leaders in takedowns, we have competitive systems that involve single duals, multi-dual events, open tournaments, invitationals and our record-keeping historically leaves a lot to be desired.

Some places document history better than others. The Southern Scuffle, born in 2003 in Greensboro, North Carolina, is one of those tournaments. Their entire online bracket history is available on its website, so being able to drill down into results isn’t as difficult as other events.

Wrestling fans love to debate “bests” – who was the best this, what was the best that. We also like to take digs at our own as well. I once heard someone describe a four-time All-American as “the worst three-time champion ever.”

That quickly led my friends and I to ponder the question: “Who was the worst four-time undefeated national champion ever?”

Obviously that’s tongue-in-cheek and not a serious ask.

So when it comes to the Southern Scuffle, what are some of its historical high points? Let’s take a gander at some of the more notable years and weight classes in the past 20 tournaments.