Is proposal for the LHAC tournament dead?

Much was made earlier about the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference tournament this season. Ryan Spring was all over it when the tournament was canceled less than 48 hours before it was to be held at Bedford.

Through some serious miscommunication, no one had ever gotten approval from the District 6 committee for the tournament in 2012-13. That meant that any tournament entered by the teams would have cost each of them scheduling points.

This week, the matter was finally brought up before the District 6 Committee ... and promptly rejected. Here's the link to the minutes from the meeting.

And here is the paragraph from the meeting:

Communications
The District 6 Committee received a request from the LHAC requesting an approval of wrestling tournament crowning an individual and a team champion. On a motion by Kim Hubler and Kathy Getz the request was denied based on the fact that it is not a true championship and it extends the numbers of events. The vote was 13-2.

That certainly doesn't seem to bode well for the tournament. But I spoke with Penn Cambria coach Todd Niebauer on Saturday and he said that the situation might not be as dour as it might seem.
"They turned it down for now, but there is a chance if we can go for a true, end-of-year thing," Niebauer said. "Maybe we can wrestle the top five or six. They want to make it a true championship, not an open tournament."
I understand Niebauer's willingness to to cooperate with the committee. It sounds like the only way the LHAC can have a tournament is to acquiesce to the committee. But the committee's reasoning for rejecting the tournament is ridiculous. The "not a true championship" holds no water, at least for individuals.
It would be the only championship for the LHAC, at least in terms of individuals. If the committee doesn't want to crown a team champion at the tournament, I get that. I can buy the argument that the team champion is crowned via dual meets. The WestPAC doesn't keep team standings at its tournament, and it doesn't seem to take much away from the event.
But an individual (or pool) tournament would be the best way to determine the best wrestlers. I don't know who all of the committee members are, but I'm guessing that they don't know much about wrestling. They don't understand how dual meets work and that just because you're a 126-pounder doesn't mean you'll wrestle each of the other LHAC's 126-pounders. They don't know that you didn't get a chance to wrestle the top 126-pounder in the conference because you bumped up to 132 in that meet in order to help your team win the dual. And they don't know that in another dual meet the opposing team gave you a forfeit and bumped their 126-pounder up to avoid you.
To them, it probably seems redundant to have the same teams that wrestle in a dual meet face off again in a tournament. But to those of us who know wrestling understand that it's not the same at all.
One of the other things that the committee apparently didn't like was the proposed date of the tournament - Jan. 5. They want it to be closer to the end of the season, although the first proposed would conflict with the Thomas tournament. Obviously, Bedford wouldn't want any part of that, and I can't see many of the other schools wanting it then either.
One final thing that might save the idea of an LHAC tournament is limiting to the top few wrestlers in each weight instead of opening it up to every wrestler. This is part of their "not a true championship" talk. Again, it's the shortsighted logic of non-wrestling people voting on wrestling matters. The District 6 tournament is open to all wrestlers, whether they have an 0-20 record or a 20-0 record. And that's considered a "true championship."
At any rate, it sounds like there is still a chance that the LHAC tournament could happen, even if it's not the way that I'd like to see it.