Pleasantly surprised by the game.  It looked pretty dreadful for the Irish in the first half and into the third quarter. But, much to their credit, the Irish fought back and made a game of it.

College Football Championship:
Ohio St 34 Notre Dame 23

What can you say?  Congratulations to Ohio St – for the first time in my life, I was actually rooting for Notre Dame. Some really cool subplots in this one but it wasn’t meant to be.  I guess we have to admit the CFP experiment was a success.  Once we got past the opening round and all of its blowouts, it was pretty interesting. For us and our little tournament, once again, PPP is getting bled by the Kelley clan. Not only is the Grand Champion hailing from the Rochester North contingent, but the Nana Prize is also being claimed by a spawn/extension of 300 Round Pond. Its getting old giving all our money to members of the Kelley family but when you are good, you are good. Ashley Kelley claims Grand Champion status for the first time in her career.  The dashing blonde and CEO of the Gillette Rd Kelleys had a very prophetic run securing wins in EVERY SINGLE CFP GAME – for those keeping track at home, that is 15 points.  Tough to keep pace with that. Ashley is pretty amazing in so many ways, we did not see this one coming.  Maybe she is a closet gambler – showing up her husband Brian “Bellichick” Kelley.  Well done Ashley – $255 Simoleons are coming your way.  As for the bottom of the table, Marissa Kelley, also a debutante winner.  This was less dramatic as the title was claimed before the finals.  Marissa is taking home $17 for sucking with tremendous skill!  Well done both you lovely Kelleys.

For our Second Place Prize, a bit more excitement there. We needed tie breaking procedures with this one as Ben Milano and Joe Edd Sr. ended up tied with 19 points. For a quick refresh, the tie breaker is a number that reflects the TOTAL points scored in the CFP Championship Game without going over.  Well, we had a situation where one of the contestants went conservative and the other, not so much.  In the end Joe Edd Sr. with a total point pick of 44 bests Ben Milano whose pick of 63 was just a tad too high. It was a valiant effort by the young Benjamin who tried his best to hang on for money but Ohio St didn’t score enough to make it work for him.  Joe joins his two brothers Gerry and Mike as money grabbers in the AHFP – though, as I am sure they will point out, they were Grand Champions.  Regardless, congratulations to Joe Edd Sr. for his first take home ($68) in our super fun competition. Well done, sir.

So there it is.  We call it quits for another year – time to catch our breath and take stock on how things went this year and determine what adjustments need to be made for next year.  Start your planning now – the first game is set to be played on December 19th, 2026!  Set your calendars and your clocks. I can’t wait for us to do it all over again!   Thank you for joining us!  We love AHFP Nation.

Sincerely,
The Chairman