BETHLEHAM, Penn. — Asterisks fill the air as the #8 Lehigh Mountain Hawks take on the unranked Hampton Pirates to see who takes home the MAAC trophy for Season 3. Lehigh has earned the right to play in this game with a 9-3 overall record and 7-1 record against conference opponents. Soaring high above the competition like their mascot, the Mountain Hawks have firmly cemented themselves as the leaders in the Adirondack Division.

The controversy comes with their opponent, a 6-6 Hampton squad that went 3-1 against their division and has a worse overall record than both Wagner and Monmouth.

Ah, Monmouth.

Its difficult to pinpoint exactly what an Ivy League school in Connecticut has to do with a fake football team in Illinois but that is what this reporter was able to find when he dug through the archives. A cryptic message about cows, chocolate milk, and a public boycott gives us a glimpse into the beginning of the story.

What IS certain is that the Hawks are NOT in the conference championship game due to their coach pulling them from the competition halfway through the season. A dispute with a committee member left the Monmouth head coach fuming as they stormed out of the conference room.

Many coaches around the league have weighed in on the situation and given their opinion but the head coach of the defending national champion Cal Poly Mustangs summed up the situation rather succinctly.

“Honestly I feel like if Monmouth doesn’t stick to their no playoffs commitment they’re even more of a coward than if they do.”

Meanwhile the Hampton Pirates prepare to make their best case for sneaking into the playoffs. Riding a 2-game winning streak, Coach C-Rex and his team need a win in order to secure an auto-bid. In true pirate fashion they are trying to steal a spot from a more deserving team.

We may never know what could have been if the 9-3 Monmouth Hawks had shown up to play in this game or how far they could have progressed in the playoffs. But one thing is for certain:

In the end, we’re all just a number between 1 and 1500.

For FCFB Overtime, this has been Joshua Average.