I'll admit, I'm pumped to have a Hodge Trophy vote. 1) It's my favorite award in sports because I believe it does the best job of rewarding its top athlete of the year. 2) I like the idea of the ability to negate the vote of my mainest man, Willie Saylor, in case his vote goes off the rails.

The Hodge's mission is simple: reward domination. I took the seven criteria that the Hodge outlines and ranked all four finalists (Seth Gross, Bo Nickal, Zain Retherford, and Zahid Valencia) against the other competitors for each category and came up with my final Hodge ballot. For example, Retherford has the most pins, so he would earn just one point for the "number of pins" criteria. Nickal had the second-most pins, so he would earn two. 

The Criteria

1. A wrestlers record: This is a three-way tie for one point since Zain, Bo, and Zahid were all undefeated. Gross gets two points for having a loss, but he's not fully punished since he bumped up to take on a challenge when he wrestled Bryce Meredith.

2. Number of pins: This is cut and dry: 1. Zain, 2. Bo, 3. Seth, 4. Zahid

3. Dominance on the mat: I like to use the metric of early match termination (percentage of techs and pins relative to wins) for this one, as tech falls are a great indicator of dominance not factored into criteria two. 1. Zain (70 percent), 2. Seth (65 percent), 3. Bo (54 percent), 4. Zahid (50 percent)

4. Quality of competition: This was clear-cut as well. Zahid Valencia faced by far the toughest competition. I’m conflicted about how I view Zahid in general. On one hand, his bonus numbers are well behind the rest. On the other, his schedule was so much more difficult than the other three that you almost want to give him some sort of benefit for the other criteria. It’s safe to assume if he didn’t wrestle as many high-caliber guys, his bonus rate would be higher. What supports this theory is that his bonus rate against the elite was the second highest of this group. Bo Nickal bonused 28 percent of his All-American competition. Zahid bonused 22 percent. Zain and Gross both bonused 20 percent.
   
   Here’s one more stat that supports the theory that Zahid would have a higher bonus rate had his competition not been so much tougher. Of the four candidates, only Zain had fewer non-bonus wins against a non-AA (zero). Zahid only had one decision against a non-AA (9-6 over Lujan). Seth Gross had two (Matt Schmitt and Mitch McKee), and Bo Nickal had three (Preisch, Gravina, Ellingwood).
   
   Back To The Elite Wins
   1) Zahid’s elite wins: Hall (dec.), Hall (dec.), Amine(dec.), Kutler (dec.), Kocer (major), Bo Jordan (dec.), Kocer (tech), Bo Jordan (dec.), Amine (dec.)
   2) Bo’s elite wins: Myles (fall), Myles (dec.) Myles (major), Abounader (dec.), Dean (dec.), Parker (dec.), Abounader (dec.), Foster (major)
   3) Zain’s elite wins:  Perry (dec.), Heilmann (dec.), Boo (TF), Sorensen (dec.), Sorensen (dec.)
   4) Seth’s elite wins: Micic (dec.), Micic (dec.), Wilson (fall), Bridges (dec.), Brock (dec.)
   
   

5. Past credentials: This category is also pretty cut and dry. 1. Zain (two-time champ), 2. Bo (one-time champ, two-time finalist), 3. Gross (one-time finalist) 4. Zahid (one-time AA)

6. It’s tough to measure sportsmanship. If you were going to nitpick and start getting into some nonsense like team points, you could ding Bo Nickal for his headgear toss. I’m not going to get into that though. It's a four-way tie here.

7. In terms of heart, it’s tough to measure this as well. Seth Gross showed the most when he bumped up to take on Bryce Meredith. The other three also wrestle an extremely aggressive, offensive style commensurate with the spirit of the Hodge. Edge to Gross, then a three-way tie.

Final Standings - Low Score Wins

1) Zain Retherford - 10

2) Bo Nickal - 12

3) Zahid Valencia - 17

4) Seth Gross - 17

I put Zahid ahead of Gross (as they had the same score) because of the aforementioned bonus metrics that suggest his dominance would have been higher had his schedule not been so much tougher than everyone else’s.   

So there it is, Zain Retherford has my vote for the Hodge Trophy. As usual, the candidates are excellent and deserving. What a great year for NCAA wrestling.