Sports Writing Samples
Bruins Storm the Pepsi Center
In depth look at the roads the eight Creek wrestlers took to get to state, Published in the Union Street Journal Senior year of High School at Cherry Creek in 2016
The weekend of February 13th saw sixteen teams travel to Central Grand Junction High School for one of the four regional wrestling tournaments in the 5a classification. The Bruins climbed up the mountain ready to battle on the mat for their opportunity to wrestle in the State Tournament held at the Pepsi Center the following week. They would go in with twelve wrestlers: 106lb Bo Cole (Sophomore), 120lb Munkhduluguun Batnasan (Senior), 126lb Josh Finesilver (Senior), 132lb Jakob Otto (Junior), 145lb Kai Blake (Freshman), 152lb Matt Finesilver (Senior), 160lb Terrell Wooley (Senior), 170lb Christian Robb (Junior), 182lb Tristan Whitlock (Senior), 195lb Noah Reisdorff (Senior), 220lb Dominic Montoya (Junior), and 285lb Jimmy Pallotto (Senior). All of whom want the same thing, to place in the top four to qualify for state.
On Friday in the first round of all the Bruins who had matches, only two lost and moved to the consolation side of the bracket still with a chance to wrestle back into placing matches. In the second round Bo Cole and Jimmy Pallotto were the only wrestlers to lose placing them in the consolation quarter-finals of their respective brackets. The remaining seven wrestlers still on the championship side pinned their opponents putting them into their semi-finals and the team in fourth place overall in the tournament. Kai Blake wrestled one of the last matches in the second round and though he fought hard, he lost his second match of the tournament eliminating him from Saturday’s competition.
Saturday began with the second half of the consolation round from the night before and the only wrestler with a match was Tristan Whitlock. Tristan battled hard but was caught in a stack position and pinned ending his tournament and season.
In the following semi-final round Munkhduluguun Batnasan was not able to pick up his third consecutive victory and secure his spot at state losing to the eventual regional champion of the 120lb weight class, moving him into the consolation rounds and giving him the chance to win two matches and make state. Following Batnasan at 126lb Josh Finesilver dominated a Sophomore from Ponderosa high school, defeating him 6-0, advancing to the Finals and securing his spot at the Pepsi Center. Jakob Otto was next up in the semi-final round taking on the number one seed from the host Grand Junction Central high school. Being overpowered Otto suffered a pin in the first period and followed Batnasan to the consolation bracket.
The middle weights were anxious to wrestle and showed as Matt Finesilver took to the circle and pinned his man in twelve seconds, earning the fastest victory of the weekend. Feeding off the momentum Terrell Wooley earned a 6-3 decision in his semi-final match which now gave the Bruins three wrestlers already guaranteed a spot in the state tournament. Next up was Christian Robb wrestling the number two man in his bracket and coming up just short of victory in over-time losing 8-6. Noah Reisdorff took the mat in the 195 lb spot and earned his first bid to the state tournament by pinning the Grand Junction Central wrestler with only six seconds left in the match. Finally in the last semi-final match, Dominic Montoya wrestled against the FloWrestling national Freshman of the year and ended up getting pinned, but at the end of the round the Bruins sent four to state for sure and had five with the opportunity to punch their own tickets.
In the next round of Consolations 106lb Bo Cole made a statement win pinning his opponent in less than a minute moving into the consolation finals. In the 220lb match Dominic Montoya earned himself a pin at the one minute mark. Then in his first match of the day heavyweight Jimmy Pallotto coming off a bad loss the night before came back strong with a pin at the 2 minute 55 second mark and put himself one match away from making it downtown.
In the consolation finals round Bo Cole was unable to fend off his last opponent putting him into the match for fifth place. Munkhduluguun found it within himself to take a 6-0 decision and go into the third place match giving him a spot in the state tournament making the total count five. Jakob Otto lost another close match following Munkhduluguun putting him in the same spot as Bo having to win his next match for sure to have a chance for a final winner take all match (wrestleback) after the final round. Christian Robb quickly forgot about his loss and won his consolation final match placing him in the third place match and sending him to state. Another quick pin for Montoya put him in the third place match and moved the total of Bruins going to state to seven. Pallotto again fell short in his match ending his chance at qualifying for the state tournament, but made his final match of his career a placing match (his first placing match in a Varsity tournament ever).
The placing round began with Bo Cole who was out maneuvered by a Greeley West High School wrestler and took sixth in the 106lb division. Munkhduluguun was on a mission and kept his focus to obtain a 7-1 decision taking third in the region. In the 126lb championship Josh Finesilver took a 4-0 decision making him the first regional champion on the team. Jakob Otto dug down deep to take fifth in the region and set up a wrestleback match against his opponent from the first round and pinned him late in the third, confirming that the Bruins will send eight wrestlers downtown. Matt Finesilver had been in plenty of championship matches this season, but this time he was the second seed instead of the first, and wasn’t able to beat his opponent from Grand Junction High School taking second in the region. Terrell Wooley went into his match with complete focus and it got him a 5-4 win and a regional championship. Christian Robb won his match over Columbine High School’s wrestler in an easy 10-0 major decision giving him third place. In the 195lb championship match, Reisdorff ran into the number one wrestler in the state in that weight class and took a tough loss but still finished runner up for the weekend. Montoya was unable to capture the victory and placed fourth in the 220lb weight class. Pallotto try as he might was unable to overcome the size difference in his match, giving up thirty pounds, and had to settle for a sixth place finish.
Overall Cherry Creek took fourth place in the team standings finishing behind Grand Junction, Ponderosa, and Grand Junction Central. The team had its best finish since 2014 in the regional tournament and will be well represented in the state tournament beginning at 7p.m. Thursday February 18th, at the Pepsi Center. Final count ten wrestlers placed in the top six and eight qualified for the big dance. Way to go Bruins!
In State Champions
Air Force tops in state Rival CSU to claim a sweep of their Colorado competition and improve to best record since 2014, Published on SBnation.com under Mountain West Connection Blog
In what was very nearly a revenge game victory for Colorado State force the Air Force Falcons to rally late for what turned into a big victory. In a first quarter that saw the Falcons team look like they expected another bye, post the first 15 minutes of the game coach Calhoun was able to rouse his team for an inspiring win giving the team their best record since 2014.
The CSU offense in the first half could do very little wrong, at times it seemed as though the universe was on the side of the Rams who entering the night needed two victories to qualify for bowl season in December, despite their best efforts they will have to win out the ret of the season to claim that honor. The game began with the Falcons defense still showing their weakness in the secondary as a couple of play action passes had the Rams well into Air Force territory, capped off by a 4 yard throwback screen from Patrick O’Brien to his tight end Trey McBride. That early offensive effort would be followed up by a defensive scoop and score of 63 yards by linebacker Mohamed Kamara. In the span of 12 minutes to that point Air Force found themselves on the verge of not only losing to a team they were better than, but being blown out by a rival as well.
Then in the second quarter the Air Force Offense took flight in a very literal sense as DJ Hammond III finished a 65 yard drive with a 31 yard pass to wide receiver Ben Waters to cut the deficit in half. The Falcons were now wide awake and fighting off both embarrassment and the week of unexpected rest grante to them the week before. The final scoring play of the half came off of the foot of Air Force’s all time leading scorer Jake Koehnke booted a 31 yard field goal to make the score 14-10 at half.
The third quarter was an old school defensive battle as neither offense was able to move the ball much farther than ten yards. Then the dam finally broke early in the fourth as Geraud Sanders caught a 51 yard touchdown from Hammond for the falcons to take their first lead of the game with just over 13 minutes to play in the game. After another defensive stand the Falcons offense capitalized, again through the air, as Hammond found Waters for the receiver’s second score of the day and Hammond’s third. With 7 to go in the game Air Force now held a ten point lead at 24-14. CSU would continue to fight as on the following drive O’Brien found his receiver Dante Wright, a true freshman, from 17 yards out for a Rams touchdown, in the late stages of the game the lead had now been cut to 3. Hammond would respond by leading a 75 yard drive where he finished it off with his fourth score, this time a 1 yard rush, to make the score 31-21 and put the pressure solely on the backs of the CSU offense who had been held in check since their big first drive. Though a spotty performance by the defense and will need to improve as the regular season comes to an end they did have a defining game clinching play to end the game effectively as Zane Lewis intercepted a pass on teh goal line then returned it 99 yards for the final score of the game. Final score Air Force 38, CSU 21.
The final score indicative of the rivalry between these two teams, also leaves plenty of concern as the Falcons move forward in their schedule. The defensive secondary minus the one big play at the end of the game still looked lost as the Rams’ O’brien was abel to total 346 yards in the air and two touchdowns. Once the team seemingly woke up and remembered they were playing a game the talent difference between the two schools showed, this will be a good lesson moving forward as now Air Force will be traveling the Albuquerque to play the Lobos of New Mexico university. New Mexico, coming off a 42-9 loss at Boise State, did not look like themselves following the terrible tragedy they suffered just a couple of weeks ago. Air Force will still need to take this game seriously as it will be a good experience and keep them on the right track to finish the season hosting a very tough Wyoming Cowboys team and continue their great season. As stated earlier in this piece Air Force now 8-2 overall (5-1, Mountain West) is the best record since 2014 and still have a path to the conference championship if Boise were to slip up the next two weeks on the road at Utah State and then at CSU. Either way the Falcons still need to handle their business and see what bowl game they get an invitation to, but so far this has been a very successful year for the Falcons.
Return to Prominence
Air Force Caps off first 10-win Regular Season since 2014, Published on sbnation.com under Mountain West Connection Blog
After a season that began with coach Troy Calhoun possibly staring down the barrel of a hostile fanbase and administration the Falcons turned in their best regular season with their head coach. With only minor hiccups against Boise State, who will be representing the Mountain division in the conference championship against Hawaii, and Armed forces rival Navy Air Force dominated the rest of their schedule, outscoring their opponents on the season 412-237 (a 175-point difference) while also out-gaining the opposition by 108 yards a game. There were many stars to point too for the terrific product the Falcons put on the field this regular season, and now with selection Sunday and bowl season looming over all of college football, it is a good time to acknowledge those who performed at a high level in 2019.
First we will begin with the offensive and defensive units as a whole, and since I am a. biased former offensive lineman we will start there. It was no surprise that the strength of this Falcons offense was upfront and running with the ball, even with the expectations of high rushing totals a triple option armed forces academy brings Air Force astonished with their totals. For the regular season Air Force averaged 293.3 yards a game making it seem as though you were looking at passing stats every week behind those big hogs on the offensive line, this lead to a crazy 5.4 yards per carry average as well almost 2 yards more than the expected average per rushing play. When you move the ball at that pace on the ground it figures that points will follow and the Falcons averaged 3.1 rushing touchdowns a game. In a time where people think that football is loosing touch with it’s hard-nosed roots one look at these averages from the season will show you that football may be changing but there still is no substitute for pounding the ball on the ground. To compliment that punch you in the mouth style offensively the defense as a whole, and specifically the front seven, did not disappoint either. The falcons forced offenses to change their gamelans from the opening kickoff allowing just 107 yards pregame rushing, 3.5 per carry, and a mere .9 rushing touchdowns a game. To make a reference an old school boxing fan would remember the Falcons front seven on defense were like old school George Foreman pounding you early and often with punches that normally wouldn’t devastate someone but you look up three rounds later from your back staring at the lights from your back as the referee counts to ten. Just because offenses are finding new ways to pass it doesn’t mean they enjoy having to abandon the run game altogether but against the 2019 Air Force defense you had no other choice.
Since it is the most important position on the field and most high profile Donald Hammond III followed up an impressive debut start in the 2018 finale by leading Air Force to 10 wins and a 35 points per game average. Hammond’s ability to run the ball fit well into the scheme this season and he finished with 491 yards on the ground to go along with 11 touchdown as well. His leadership was immense and showed when he was on the field since when his injury forced him out of the final stages of the Navy game in the heartbreaking loss to the Midshipmen. In just his junior year at the Academy Falcons fans should be excited to have him play in the upcoming bowl game as well as next season. Along with impressive ground stats Hammond also grew as a passer especially towards the end of the season, overall Hammond had 1286 yards passing 13 touchdowns and a rating of 194 in an offense that doesn't feature the passing game much. For a season offensive MVP its hard to not pick Hammond who accounted for 1777 yards and 26 touchdowns both rushing and passing. Hammond is making his place among the great quarterbacks who have manned the helm at Air Force.
Defensively I will focus on two players because they impacted the game from different levels of the defense and in different ways. My first co-MVP will Milton Tre Bugg III, I played with Tre on one of the USA Football teams who played internationally and he is a game changer in the defensive backfield, a fact he drove home this year with his 3 interceptions one of which he returned to the house. Though the Falcons struggled defending the pass as a whole that could be attributed to the amount of pass plays ran against them since no team could move the ball rushing. In spite of this Bugg also showed a willingness to stick his nose into the action finishing the season with 34 solo tackles and 48 total giving a presence not normally seen on the outside of defenses that corners don’t often provide. The second co-MVP for the Falcons defense was junior inside linebacker Demonte Meeks which shouldn’t come as a surprise to many who saw Air Force play. Meeks’ stat line reads like this: 42 solo tackles, 97 total tackles, 9 of those tackles for loss, and 4 sacks. If you were looking for the anchor to the defensive from that allowed only 107 yards rushing a game you don’t have to go much farther than number 38 who will look to cap off a great season that will most likely see him break the 100 total tackle mark and maybe the 10 sack barrier as well.
The success was a total team effort but the 3 players mentioned above stand out amongst a myriad of other candidates on both sides of the ball, and they also reinforce the amazing standard coach Calhoun has created in Colorado, Springs withe the Juniors and below.
Bowl Projection
As for where the Falcons will finish their season it is all speculation until December 8th, when all the conference championships are finished and the final rankings are selected and released. Another bright spot for the Falcons was they finished 25th in the AP and coaches poll rankings after being 1 of the 20 division 1a college football programs to finish with double digit wins in the regular season, there are 129 total teams in division 1a. According to ESPN.com and their college football experts there are two possible landing spots for Air Force and their bowl game, the first sends Air Force to the desert to play in the Cheez-it bowl being played at Chase Field in Phoenix the normal home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. This bowl game would see them take on the Texas Longhorns in another opportunity to see the Mountain West Conference to take another win against a team from a power five conference, no matter how underwhelming the Longhorns have been since their highly anticipated matchup against the LSU tigers way back in September. This matchup plays into both strengths of the Falcons as Texas QB Sam Ellinger is more Tim Tebow than Peyton Manning, both are winners but one is a tried and true quarterback while the other is a glorified tight end who can throw a little bit. Demonte Meeks and the rest of the vaunted front seven of Air Force would force the young Texan out of his comfort zone running the ball and Ellinger’s downfall is when he is forced to throw the ball.
The Second matchup, though a bowl game of more prestige, would see Air Force playing the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl taking place in Fort Worth, Texas at Amon G. Carter Stadium. The Hilltoppers finished the season 8-4 coming out of the C-USA Eastern division who's signature win came against Arkansas 45-19. However, with the common opponent with Air Force in Army won a close game 17-8 holding the Black Knights to 5 points less than the Falcons. Honestly living in Colorado we don’t get too many C-USA games on the standard sports package so I will have to do more digging if in fact Air Force does play WKU in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Ultimately there is still a slate of conference championship games and chaos could ensue, though most would probably bet chalk which would cause little surprises for the upcoming games. For myself on this blog thread since Air Force won’t have a game for a few more weeks there will not be a pregame or recap until the week of their Bowl Game. If you enjoy my takes and my writing I will be contributing more to the roundtable and collaborative articles for Mountain West Connection but you can listen to my radio show that airs twice a week live Wednesday and Friday at 10am Mountain Standard time on the tunein app if you search KWSB, or you can listen to the recordings on our soundcloud page at this link https://soundcloud.com/user-523669779. I normally upload them that evening or the following day. Follow me on twitter @JimmyPallotto for my takes and random thoughts as well. Thanks for reading and following along this season.
Western Slope Warriors: Western Colorado Tops Western Slope Rival Colorado Mesa in Final Home Dual of the Season
Published in Top O’ the World for Western Colorado University in 2020
Though wrestling has been few and far between in the 2019-2020 school year that has not diminished the talent on the mat, or the fanaticism of the Red Tornado. Last Wednesday Western Colorado hosted the final dual of the season in Paul Wright Gym against the Mavericks on Colorado Mesa University. The two schools hold quite a fierce rivalry in all aspects, but none are as personal as the wrestling iteration, how could it be when Mesa head coach Chuck Pipher was a former assistant at Western and the father of Mountaineers’ coach Charlie Pipher. In the span of three years under Charlie the Mountaineers have continued the legacy of high level NCAA wrestling forged under now Athletic Director Miles Van Hee producing three National Championship qualifiers last season, and currently have two wrestlers ranked nationally in their respective weight classes, Patrick Allis (Freshman, 125pounds) and Jimmy Laconte (Freshman, 174pounds). With this reloading of the lighter weight classes however, the Mountaineers are still filling the holes left by former three-time All-American Brandon Supernaw and perennial stud Konnor Schmidt who both graduated last season as evidenced by this year’s Mesa dual.
Ranked 10th in the country according to Intermatwrestle.com at the 125 pound weight class true Freshman Patrick Allis fresh from Discovery Canyon high school has taken the mantle of the “starter” in the Mountaineers’ lineup and held that true Wednesday picking up a first period pin fall victory 2:42 into his bout against Collin Metzgar. Allis has been a solid foundation this season replacing Trent Piat who graduated last May, Allis is currently undefeated in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference(RMAC) duals and a favorite to finish in the top three at the Region VI tournament in Kearney which would give him a spot in the Division II national tournament coming up in Mid-March. Allis qualifying for nationals would make it two years in a row Western has sent true freshman to that tournament joining Jason Hannenberg and Dylan McBride from last season. The pin fall victory put Western out in front of Mesa 6-0 going into the 133-pound match.
Cody Fatzinger kept the pin party going and put the Red Tornado student section on its feet taking out Dylan Keeny with just 33 seconds left in a hard-fought contest. Fatzinger entered the dual as the reigning RMAC “wrestler of the week” after his victory the previous week over D’Andre Brumfield of the Colorado State University-Pueblo Thunderwolves, Brumfield was ranked 5th in the country at the time. Fatzinger earned the praise of coach Charlie Pipher during his post-match interview on KEJJ 98.3FM. “Cody has really grown into his role this year after taking a lot of hard lessons last year. He is turning it around at the right time this season.”
The lid was blown off of Paul Wright during the 141-pound match by returning national qualifier Jason Hannenberg wasted no time getting a pin of his own in 1:16. Hannenberg coming back from a long-term injury and losing his national ranking took out his frustrations on Colorado Mesa’s Daniel Van Hoose showing he is back and ready for post-season wrestling. One of the returning leaders of last year’s squad Hanenberg is looking to build off his freshman season and make the podium in this season’s national tournament.
Giovanni Cassioppi was the first of the Mountaineers to fall dominating his match until the final two minutes hanging his head over the top of Dylan Fuchs. Though disappointing Cassioppi made the most of his performance going into the big tournaments in March. This match was also significant as Fuchs taunted the student section causing the referee to deduct one point from Colorado Mesa’s team score making Western’s lead 12-5 instead of 12-6. Cole Mortensen got the Mountaineer’s their fourth pin fall victory and what would turn out to be their last of the night.
Coming out of the intermission the Western wrestlers looked lethargic and showed little interest in building on the huge lead the first five weight classes had built. Mesa would go on to win each weight class from 165 pounds through 285-pound heavyweights. The only good thing that can be said about the second half of the match was that none of the wrestlers gave up bonus points in the team category causing the final score to be 24-20 Western barely hung on to sweep Mesa for the third season in a row but there is still plenty of work to do especially ion the upper weight classes.
The Mountaineers are back in action February 29th in Kearney, Nebraska for the Region VI tournament. Each of the Mountaineers will look to place in the top three of their weight classes to qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 13th and 14th. More information on that to come.
Institutional Pig Skin: A look at the College Football Landscape
By Jimmy Pallotto, Co-Host Far End of the Bench Podcast, Wednesdays 1-3pm EST
As a former College football player and avid fan, I can’t get my opinions to the people for this! Exert Thursday moving forward you can expect an Institutional Pig Skin blog discussing the hottest topics of college football that week! Enjoy!2020 has been many things, and I don’t have to bore you with the whole horror story over again. Fitting that now at the end of the month of Spooktober our world will regain a balance it never once knew it needed… BIG TEN Football. Yes, the longtime power-house conference of college football who made huge headlines back in August about canceling the 2020 fall season has fallen in line with their fellow Power 5 conferences and will be holding a season, albeit abbreviated, starting October 24th! Now one may wonder, “Jimmy college football has been having games since the end of August why is this such a big deal now?” And to that question, my response is this: If Lebron James decided not to play for the rest of the NBA Finals would the Heat’s championship feel earned? Or would it be forever tainted? I would go with the second, which is why NCAA Football needs the Big Ten.For most fans of college football, we like the givens, and one of the main things given with college football is that it is best played in the southeast portion of the country. Alabama’s, Florida’s, and Clemson’s hold this standard, and the season LSU had in 2019 under my new lord and savior Joe Burrow just makes this claim even stronger; but as a representative of the offensive line and avid fullback fan, I must remind you of the way the game is plaid further West along the Ohio Valley. The Big 10, especially in the more recent years and under this playoff format, has battled back and forth with the SEC in terms of who is the true top conference, and this is something that does swing back and forth. A further explanation for the rest of this blog I am going to reference Clemson as an SEC school since the ACC is barely a thing anymore. This year looks to be no different as Justin Fields, already among discussions as one of the top NFL prospects at the QB position in 2021 re-enters the field along with Ohio State who fell to Clemson in a classic Fiesta Bowl game in January. Not only that you are now adding the depth of programs like Iowa and Wisconsin who have been notoriously tough both in the conference and out, and of course as long as they aren’t playing that team to south Michigan has to be seen as a national power too. All of these things are great when talking about raising the level of college football this season, but there are some downfalls to this and that is what I look to address next.2020 NCAA Football Division 1 Ranking the week 6Clemson 3-0, Alabama 2-0, Georgia 2-0, Florida 2-0, Notre Dame 2-0, Ohio State 0-0, Miami 3-0, North Carolina 2-0, Penn State 0-0, Oklahoma State 3-0, Cincinnati 3-0, Oregon 0-0Auburn 1-1, Tennessee 2-0, BYU 3-0, Wisconsin 0-0, LSU 1-1, SMU 4-0, Virginia Tech 2-0, Michigan 0-0, Texas A&M 1-1, Texas 2-1, Louisiana 3-0, Iowa State 2-1, Minnesota 0-0. As you can see the Big 10 despite not having games yet still hold plenty of sway in the rankings with 2 top 10’s and 5 teams overall. Even though Pac 12 is also coming back soon I don’t think this will matter as much for them. The worst-case scenario for the Playoff Committee is Notre Dame despite all my feelings towards them not being very good goes undefeated and. Then like we probably all expect the Buckeyes go out and dominate the conference going undefeated and winning another Big 10 championship which would make them 8-0 or 9-0. At that point which should be held in more regard? I can see arguments for both sides.Big 10 championship argument: Traditionally speaking Notre Dame has not competed well in recent decades when it comes to the championship and bowl games. They were forced into the ACC this year which means they finally will play a full college football season schedule without missing championship week potentially but it is a much weaker conference than the Big 10 outside of Clemson and the fledgling Florida schools trying to recapture former glory.In response to this argument, I think that it is a fair point. In a normal season, conference championships are one of the most important factors when the committee makes their selections outside of record on the season. However there is a level of prestige given to the different conferences, the obvious being Power 5 vs Group of 5. But within power 5 as well there are levels, SEC is given top billing and that is evidenced by them almost always having 2 teams in the playoff or in serious contention to make the 4th spot. Where their argument can get some poked holes in it comes from this angle.Notre Dame’s Argument: In normal seasons the Irish always get a bad rap for playing a shorter schedule and that leads to them not having a conference championship game. And normally it is only the matter of a Big 10 or SEC school being 11-1 after losing the conference championship and ND being 10-0. A difference of 2 games is normally massive, and now we are talking about a possible difference of 3-4 games. That may have to be taken into consideration.What should the NCAA do? Well in my opinion expanding the tournament format to 16 teams with automatic qualifiers going to the 10 Division 1A conference champions and the other 6 are based on ranking at the end of the season. You can use the bowl games as the different rounds of the tournament and can still finish the season along relatively the same timeline. Plus who would love to have Winter and March madness! But this isn’t practical to do in a regular new season let alone one where we are dealing with unprecedented challenges so what I think the Playoff committee needs to do is iron out the “Covid Related” criteria they will rank and make selections off. Something where a majority of members can agree on so when selection Sunday comes it is abundantly clear what the criteria is to make the 4 team playoff this year. Hopefully, this is something already being planned, but if not I look forward to arguing about it further down the line. Thanks for reading see you next week!Listen to the podcast I co-host with Niko Bryant Wednesdays from 1-3pm EST on unhingedsn.com. Go follow the podcast @FeOTBpod for updates and you can catch the show on-demand immediately following the network released on all podcasting platforms!