Takedown Report

As Hodge Trophy race takes shape, a reminder to fans of the award’s criteria, process

By Bryan Van Kley

With fans gearing up for another epic month of national championships, expect one of the closest races ever for the WIN Magazine/Culture House Dan Hodge Trophy.  As usual, there has been a lot of discussion over the off-season and during the season on who should win the 2025 Hodge. This is a great chance to explain how the process works.
Wrestling’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy is awarded annually by the Dan Hodge Trophy Voting Committee to the most dominant wrestler. The committee, made up of all past Hodge winners, select national media, a retired college coach from each region, and a representative of each national wrestling organization will each vote based on four criteria: record, dominance/bonus-point percentage, quality of competition and sportsmanship. Taking them one at a time, here’s how the ASICS Race for the Hodge Trophy sets up going into the conference qualifiers. 
It’s likely going to take an undefeated record and a bonus-point percentage of above 90% or near that to win the Hodge. Five guys are front-runners going into the NCAA qualifiers: Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink (22-0, 95.3% bonus-point percentage), Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole (16-0, 87.5%), Penn State’s Carter Starocci (21-0, 90.5%), UNI’s Parker Keckeisen (24-0, 87.5%) and Minnesota’s Gable Steveson (14-0, 92.9%).  
One interesting and important variable in the Hodge voting process is that each committee member gets one vote and they’re reminded of the four criteria each year (with the exception of multiple-time Hodge winners, who get one vote for each year they won the award.) The committee members submit their votes to WIN. In addition to those, the winner of the Fan Vote gets five first-place votes. Then, similar to the Heisman, whoever has the most votes from that process wins; it’s pretty simple and the first-place votes are released in the article each year stating who won the Hodge. 
In 2024, Aaron Brooks got 48 out of 59 first-place votes. From my perspective in casting my own ballot, I look at record first since the more times you wrestle, the more opportunities there are to get beat, and the more chances for opponents to keep the top guys from scoring bonus points, decreasing their final bonus-point percentage. 
There are likely a couple guys from this group of five, probably Mesenbrink and the likely winner of the Starocci-Keckeisen NCAA finals bout, who will be 26 or 27-0 and have bonus points in potentially all or all but one or two of their matches. … more at … https://www.win-magazine.com/2025/03/06/as-hodge-trophy-race-takes-shape-a-reminder-to-fans-of-the-awards-criteria-process/

March 18, 2025 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | football, sports